George  W ashington  Flowers 
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CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


BY 

COL.  HENRY  B.  CARRINGTON,  U.S.A.,  M.A.,  LL.D. 


“ Disce,  a priseis  temporibus,  solicitudinem  pro  futuro,  habere.” 


PHILADELPHIA: 

J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  & CO. 
1878. 


Copyright,  1878,  by  Col.  Henry  E.  Carrington,  U.S.A. 


3 73.7 

<2  3 t8C 


DEDICATION. 


IN  MEMORY  OF  CONSIDERATE  FRIENDSHIP, 

THIS  SUMMARY  OF  MORE  THAN  FORTY  YEARS  OF 
EARNEST  REFLECTION 

IS  DEDICATED  TO 

DR.  JAMES  M.  LEETE, 

OP  ST.  LOUIS,  MO. 


S 


* 


' ; . ' ' , 

...  - - %>  ■ ' ■ - - ■ , >. 

. ; ' ' ■ - - • • • • • - " ■-  -- 


v-  . 


■ 


CONTENTS. 


I. — The  Hour:  the  Peril:  the  Duty. 

Delivered  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  while  Adjutant- 
General  of  Ohio,  April  11  and  17,  1861 


PAGE 


11 


II. — The  War:  its  Nature  and  Prospects,  its 
Moral  and  Social  Evils,  and  its  Ulti- 
mate Result. 

Delivered  to  the  soldiers  of  Indiana,  at  In- 
dianapolis, Indiana,  February  22,  1863, 
while  Colonel  Eighteenth  United  States 
Infantry,  commanding  the  Post  . . 41 


III. — Kind  Words  to  Colored  Citizens  upon  the 
Religious,  Educational,  Social,  and  Per- 
sonal Duty  of  their  Race. 

Delivered  at  dedication  of  church  edifice  for 
Colored  Citizens,  while  temporarily  on  duty 
at  Indianapolis,  June  17,  1869  . . .79 


5 


. 


' 


■ 

. 


EXPLANATORY. 


It  is  more  than  seventeen  years  since  members 
of  the  Ohio  Senate  caused  the  first  of  these  ad- 
dresses to  be  repeated  and  published.  It  had 
been  solemnly  inspired  by  the  conviction,  pub- 
licly expressed,  that  “ a war  was  impending 
which  would  outlast  a presidential  term,  would 
cost  hundreds  of  thousands  of  lives  and  thousands 
of  millions  of  money.”  Ho  blood  had  then  been 
shed.  The  address  was  voluntary,  and  was  illus- 
trated by  large  maps  of  Pensacola  and  Charleston 
harbors,  and  diagrams  of  fortifications  and  ord- 
nance. It  was  twice  repeated,  and  before  its 
last  delivery  Fort  Sumter  fell.  Its  republication 
has  been  requested  by  those  whose  judgment  I 
respect.  It  was  not  at  first  the  gush  of  a hasty 
impulse. 

In  1836  a stranger  visited  a boarding-school 
at  Torringford,  Connecticut,  which  was  con- 
ducted by  Rev.  Mr.  Goodman  and  Dr.  Radcliff 
Hudson,  both  of  whom  were  afterwards  mobbed 
in  Hew  England,  for  expressing  anti-slavery 
opinions.  The  stranger  explained  to  the  class 
in  geography,  the  nature  and  history  of  African 


8 


EXPLANATORY. 


slavery  and  the  slave  trade.  He  asked  his 
listeners  to  stand  up,  if  they  were  willing  during 
after-years,  to  pray  and  labor  for  universal 
liberty.  The  stranger  was  John  Brown,  who 
departed  this  life  at  Charlestown,  Virginia. 

The  impression  made  by  that  stranger  was 
never  effaced. 

Certain  violence  at  Farmington,  Connecticut, 
in  1839,  and  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  in  1849,  inci- 
dentally referred  to  on  page  83,  only  deepened 
that  impression,  and  indicated  that  ultimate  con- 
flict, alone,  would  solve  the  maturing  issue. 

In  February,  1861,  Senator  Chase  thus  ad- 
dressed the  writer,  then  adjutant-general  of  Ohio  : 
“ Our  most  sober  thinkers,  and  those  best  in- 
formed, as  well  as  conservative  men  from  the 
South,  predict  war.  Our  militia  should  be  offi- 
cered by  the  wisest  and  best  men.  How  soon 
they  may  be  needed,  no  man  can  tell.” 

Mr.  Cass,  Secretary  of  State,  in  writing  to  the 
same  officer,  and  referring  to  his  own  relations 
with  President  Buchanan,  said,  “ We  have  indeed 
fallen  upon  evil  times,  when  those  who  should  pre- 
serve, seem  bent  upon  destroying,  the  country.” 

The  later  addresses,  to  the  soldiers  of  Indiana, 
on  Washington’s  birthday,  1863,  and  to  the 
colored  people  of  Indianapolis,  on  the  dedication 
of  a church  edifice,  in  1869,  are  parts  of  one 
enforced  sequence  of  convictions,  which  have 
proper  place  with  the  first  address. 


EXPLANATORY. 


9 


The  first  foreshadowed  the  struggle.  The 
second  contemplated  a crisis  in  its  progress.  The 
third  sought  to  win  an  emancipated  race  to  right 
appreciation  of  so  costly  a deliverance. 

As  grouped,  they  testify  of  the  dangers  of 
political  passion  and  the  value  of  peace,  at  any 
honorable  compromise  of  non-essentials,  and 
appeal  to  parties,  sections,  and  races  “ to  learn 
from  former  experiences  to  have  solicitude  for 
the  future,”  and  thus  unite,  as  did  the  Roman 
Senate  in  its  supreme  hour  of  peril,  to  “ see  that 
no  harm  shall  befall  the  republic.” 

Wabash  College,  Crawfordsville,  Ind., 

July  4,  a. H.  1878. 


1* 


/ 


■ 


••  ■ 


' 

■ 


■ . 


I 


THE  HOUR:  THE  PERIL:  THE  DUTY. 


DELIVERED  AT  COLUMBUS,  OHIO,  WHILE  ADJUTANT- 
GENERAL  OF  OHIO,  APRIL  11  AND  17,  1861. 


In  an  hour  like  this,  when  the  nervous  wire 
thrills,  each  second,  with  some  fresh  note  of 
alarm,  when  men  hold  their  breath  as  they  wait 
upon  the  electric  flash,  when  minutes  fulfil  the 
work  of  hours,  and  each  day  is  more  fraught 
with  issues  vital  to  freedom  and  mankind  than 
were  months  or  years  in  earlier  times,  it  is  pre- 
eminently necessary  that  we  meet  each  crisis 
squarely,  weigh  well  our  several  obligations,  and 
prove  resolute  for  each  and  every  duty  or  en- 
deavor that  may  be  forced  against  us. 

Hor  is  any  citizen  or  class  of  citizens  exempt 
from  a share  of  responsibility  at  such  a time. 
Hone  worthy  the  name  will  disclaim  that  respon- 
sibility, or  fail  to  testify  their  interest.  The  man 
of  daily  labor  pauses  in  his  round  of  work  to  ask 
for  the  “ last  dispatch,”  and  all  trades  and  occu- 
pations, all  crafts  and  callings,  share  in  undefined 
but  real  apprehension  as  to  our  national  future. 

Could  we  rise  above  the  trammels  of  party 
bias  and  personal  concern,  and,  as  lovers  of 

n 


12 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


liberty  and  lovers  of  justice,  calmly  review  the 
scenes  which  from  hour  to  hour  transpire  wher- 
ever civilized  man  is  now  the  actor,  all  that 
appears  involved,  or  gloomy,  would  take  order 
and  unity,  and  would  fill  its  fit  place  in  the  grand 
drama  now  being  enacted,  which  will  have  as  its 
catastrophe  the  end  of  despotism,  and  as  its 
climax,  the  supremacy  of  liberty  and  right. 

Could  we  rise  to  a still  loftier  height  of  obser- 
vation, and  perceive  the  hand  of  the  Infinite,  as 
with  magic  art  and  plastic  touch  it  moulds  the 
nations  and  bends  the  designs  of  men  to  the 
development  of  a Kingdom  of  Peace,  we  could 
even  exult  in  all  that  now  seems  forbidding,  or 
fatal  to  the  public  weal,  and  could  behold,  with 
all  the  assurance  of  prophecy  itself,  the  dawning 
of  a better  day. 

But  the  finite  mind,  as  it  gazes  upon  the 
swiftly-changing  scenes,  and  traces  the  swelling 
volume  of  the  plot,  and  the  startling  issues  that 
boldly  leap  to  view  through  each  succeeding  act, 
wearies  with  the  complex  mechanism  and  the 
confused  purposes  that  mark  the  parts,  until  at 
length  we  dread  each  shift  of  scene,  as  if  the 
Sixth  Seal  and  the  woes  of  the  Apocalyptic  vision 
were  presently  to  be  ushered  upon  the  earth. 

FREEDOM  ADVANCES. 

If  we  prove  dull  to  the  voice  of  history,  and 
fail  to  see  on  all  its  records  the  signs  of  progres- 


REACTION  BUT  TEMPORARY. 


13 


sive  growth,  and  the  ultimate  freedom  of  man- 
kind ; if  we  perceive  not  the  accumulated  power 
which  Christianity  herself  has  infused  into  each 
advancing  Commonwealth  or  State  : we  have  at 
least  reached  a period  of  human  progress  where, 
with  all  the  confidence  of  the  intrepid  Galileo, 
we  may  exclaim,  “ The  world  moves,”  at  last. 

R"ot  alone  in  science  and  art;  not  alone  in 
{esthetic  culture  and  social  growth ; not  alone  in 
material  wealth  and  power ; but  in  the  freedom 
of  the  State,  and  freedom  of  the  individual  man 
himself,  the  world  moves,  onward,  and  upward. 

REACTION  BUT  TEMPORARY. 

Reaction,  by  a normal  law  of  nature,  may 
assert  its  tendency  for  a passing  hour ; and  the 
rebound  of  an  active  principle  may  beget  a 
transient  pause  in  the  onward  sweep  of  Liberty 
to  its  culminating  triumph.  The  task-master 
may,  again  and  again,  assert  his  divine  right  to 
appropriate  and  use  the  unrequited  toil  of  his 
fellow-man.  Legitimate  revolution  may  seem 
barren  of  fruit,  and  the  counterfeit  may  put  on 
the  mien  of  proud  and  defiant  mastery.  Liberty 
may  take  the  guise  of  License,  and  Anarchy  may 
usurp  the  name  and  garb  of  Liberty ! But  Time, 
which  receives  them  all  into  her  appropriating 
charge,  will  try  them  in  a fiery  crucible, — will 
evolve  the  pure  and  reject  the  false. 

The  world  has  been  convulsed  by  dynastic 


14 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


changes  heretofore.  The  l-ace  has  been  con- 
fouixcled  by  strange  and  unnatural  conflicts  here- 
tofore. Right,  Liberty,  and  Religion  have  been 
the  plaything  or  contempt  of  false  friends  and 
still  falser  foes,  and  the  tyrant  has  appeared  only 
to  mature  in  strength  in  his  struggle  with  the 
down-trodden  and  oppressed,  and  to  ride  tri- 
umphantly over  the  fairest  hopes  of  the  people, 
heretofore. 

Rome  and  Greece,  Gaul  and  Britain,  Poland 
and  Hungary,  France  and  Germany,  have  passed 
through  the  furnace,  seven  times  heated,  and 
with  unequal  issue ; hut  in  all,  and  through  all, 
the  advance  of  the  people  toward  Liberty  and 
Peace,  has  been  time  to  the  promised  destiny  of 
the  race.  Even  where  old  organisms  retain  their 
form  and  name,  you  will  still  behold  a change 
of  feature.  That  which  was  once  asserted  in  the 
name  of  despotic  sway,  has  put  on  the  show  of 
serving  the  people,  only  through  some  time- 
honored  machinery  of  the  State.  From  week  to 
week,  and  from  hour  to  hour,  through  trial  and 
peril,  and  in  all  the  changing  phases  of  our  social 
life,  we  read  the  fresh  assurance,  that  the  cause 
of  Humanity  and  Right  is  drawing  near  its 
crowning  triumph. 

SIGNS  OF  PROGRESS. 

Ten  years  ago,  and  no  mortal  foresight  could 
have  anticipated  the  momentous  changes  and 


ALL  NATIONS  PLAY  THEIR  PART.  15 

brilliant  trophies  which  now  adorn  and  dignify 
the  advancing  cause.  Then,  it  had  been  mad- 
ness to  prophesy  that  which  has  already  become 
fruition.  Then,  hope  deferred  made  the  heart 
sick,  and  it  seemed  as  if  all  continental  progress 
was  at  an  end.  How,  look  at  the  contrast. 

The  press  whispers,  and  thrones  tremble.  At 
the  dash  of  its  pen,  new  policies  are  inaugurated, 
and  new  codes  enacted.  Senates  and  Chambers, 
Deputies  and  Congresses,  and  all  other  modern 
types  of  representation  of  the  popular  will,  simply 
decline  their  sanction,  or  declare  their  enmity  to 
acts  of  a despotic  scope,  and  that  which  once  was 
known  only  to  the  privy  council,  or  some  self- 
reliant  tyrant,  until  its  crushing  weight  fell  upon 
the  unresisting  commons,  now  drops  nerveless 
and  harmless  before  the  breath  of  debate. 

Magna  Charta  was  but  the  forerunner.  Every- 
where the  Proclamation,  the  Ukase,  the  Hatti 
Sheriff,  and  the  Edict,  are  letting  down  the 
throne  to  receive  upon  its  platform  of  power  the 
true  sovereign,  the  People. 

ALL  NATIONS  PLAY  THEIR  PART. 

China  stands  open  to  the  world.  Binding 
treaties  pledge  her  to  admit  free  speech,  free 
press,  and  an  untrammelled  conscience,  as  part 
of  her  method  and  policy.  Japan  unbars  her 
gates,  and  accepts  all  nations  as  her  neighbors. 
India  dissolves  the  restraints  of  caste,  unites  her 


16 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS . 


boundaries  by  the  railroad  and  the  telegraph, 
and  the  long-lived  oppression  of  a selfish  corpo- 
ration gives  place  to  the  benignant  sway  of  the 
English  constitution  and  laws.  Even  Africa,  so 
long  the  scorn  of  nations,  discloses  vast  fields  for 
profitable  culture,  and  welcomes  commerce  to 
her  new  traffic  in  the  cotton  and  the  cane. 

Turkey  renounces  the  sale  of  man,  and  the 
Christian  becomes  the  equal  of  the  child  of  Ma- 
homet in  the  hall  of  litigation,  the  porch  of  the 
mosque,  and  the  bazaar  of  trade. 

Russia  enfranchises  her  servile  millions,  and 
no  longer  dares  refuse  to  the  struggling  Poles  a 
liberal  code,  a representative  Council,  and  the 
machinery  of  a healthy  organization,  to  be 
officered  and  directed  by  men  of  their  own  race 
and  language. 

Austria,  wellnigh  bankrupt  in  name  and 
credit,  flies  from  canons,  and  consistories,  and 
concordats,  to  find  her  only  hope  and  life  in  the 
organized  representation  of  the  people  them- 
selves. 

Hungary  calmly  but  firmly  accepts  the  offer  as 
a matter  of  simple  right ; while  Transylvania  and 
Servia  present  the  same  demand  with  assurance 
of  success.  France  grows  strong,  but  only  in 
the  warmth  of  maturing  freedom ; and  all  conti- 
nents are  agitated,  or  upheaved,  by  the  impend- 
ing issue,  in  which  Liberty  shall  surely  triumph. 
True  it  is  that  the  iron  arm  of  despotism,  wher- 


ALL  NATIONS  PLAY  THEIR  PART.  Y] 

ever  and  however  energizing,  still  threatens  the 
well-being  of  every  State  and  people,  and  this,  no 
matter  how  many  disguises  it  assumes,  that  it 
may  protract  the  struggle  and  attain  its  will. 

The  Emperor  of  France  is  styled  “ Emperor, 
by  the  will  of  the  French.”  The  new-horn 
Kingdom  of  Italy,  fair  of  proportion,  and  regal 
in  beauty,  seats  upon  her  throne  a sovereign 
“ King,  by  the  will  of  the  people.”  Thrones 
become  insignificant,  and  titles  are  hut  shadows  ! 
The  leaven  of  liberty  is  at  work,  forcing  itself 
even  into  the  presence-chamber  of  the  Vatican, 
and  compelling  Hapsburg  and  Bourbon  alike  to 
bend  with  respect  to  its  sublime  and  persistent 
progress. 

But  a few  more  conflicts  with  the  barbarism 
of  wrong,  a few  more  lances  splintered  with  the 
champions  of  the  worn-out  systems  of  feudal 
times,  and  freedom  shall  become  the  law  of 
nations  as  it  is  the  law  of  God.  Fair  pledges, 
specious  guarantees,  temporizing  shifts,  may 
defer  the  day;  but  it  surely  draws  on  apace. 
Soon,  in  politics  as  well  as  in  religion  and  ethics, 
it  will  not  satisfy  the  honest  searcher  after  truth, 
to  style  evil  good,  and  good  evil, — to  pronounce 
the  bitter  sweet,  and  the  sweet  bitter.  But  truth, 
simple  and  unqualified,  uncompromised  away  by 
refinements  of  clique  or  party,  undiluted  by 
selfish  sacrifice  of  principle  for  temporary  ends, 
will  live  and  flourish.  You  and  I may  or  may 


18 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


not  survive  the  struggle  that  must  usher  in  the 
final  scene ; but  come  it  must,  and  come  it  will. 
Even  on  the  American  continent,  this  agitation 
has  been  recognized  and  felt.  Mexico,  and  her 
sister  republics  of  Spanish  pedigree,  have  been 
turned  upon  the  wheel  of  Fortune,  until  you  can 
scarcely  distinguish  the  sway  of  the  patriot  from 
the  rule  of  the  despot. 

THE  UNITED  STATES  NO  LONGER  A MERE  SPECTATOR. 

Heretofore,  seemingly  remote  from  these  con- 
flicts, our  own  beloved  land  has  sympathized 
with  all  oppressed  nations,  while  her  benefactions 
have  not  been  withheld,  neither  have  any  turned 
from  her  charity  away.  Kosciusko  and  Bozzaris, 
Bolivar  and  Kossuth,  alike  thanked  God  that 
America  had  a being.  Ireland  and  Madeira 
were  rescued  in  their  hour  of  desolation  and 
wasting,  and  with  glad  hearts  and  voices  sent  up 
their  incense  of  prayer  and  praise  to  Him  who 
hitherto  had  blessed  us. 

But  this  proud  republic  is  no  longer  before  the 
footlights,  an  eager  but  independent  spectator. 
Just  as  the  head  turns  dizzy,  and  the  eye  wearies 
with  beholding  nation  after  nation  dragged 
through  the  bewildering  maze  of  characters  and 
conflicts,  we,  too,  are  hurled  upon  the  stage, 
forced  to  become  the  centre  of  all  eyes,  and  to 
be  tested  as  to  our  loyalty  to  freedom,  and  our 
right  to  the  exalted  post  of  her  standard-bearer. 


ELEMENTS  OF  PRESENT  TROUBLE.  19 

Planted  in  the  highway  of  nations,  clasping 
the  continent  with  our  arms,  bounding,  as  at 
one  leap,  to  unparalleled  culture,  greatness,  and 
power,  yet  proud  and  zealous  for  a still  wider 
sweep  of  empire,  even  at  the  expense  of  principle 
and  others’  rights,  we  reach  this  dizzy  pitch  of 
greatness,  only  to  seem  poised  for  a fall,  the 
more  fatal  if  we  prove  recreant  to  our  trust,  as  our 
pre-eminence  has  been  the  more  distinguished. 

ELEMENTS  OF  PRESENT  TROUBLE. 

Nor  will  I pause  here  to  analyze  critically  the 
causes  which  have  induced  the  peril;  neither 
will  I impose  upon  any  class  of  men  or  measures 
the  sole  responsibility  for  the  impending  struggle. 
F ew  could  relieve  themselves  from  a share  of  the 
burden,  while  all  should  feel  that  they  must 
gladly  meet  any  sacrifice  to  regain  the  vantage 
ground  already  lost.  And  yet,  before  I treat  of 
the  issue  which  is  most  pressing,  and  express  my 
humble  judgment  of  the  path  of  duty,  which 
should  he  boldly  traced,  permit  me  to  refer  to 
certain  grave  considerations,  which  have  made 
our  present  peril  almost  inevitable,  while  they 
have  also  supplied  the  elements  and  accessories 
of  revolution  and  riot. 

I.  Moral  Principle  Rejected  by  Politicians. 

The  jirst  disorganizing  element  that  I shall 
notice  lies  in  the  prevalent  assumption  that  our 


20 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


historic  prestige  and  our  present  destination,  as 
the  experimental  model  of  Republican  institu- 
tions in  the  world,  absolves  us  from  allegiance  to 
those  laws  and  moral  maxims,  which  we  enjoin 
upon  dependent  States,  and  which  are,  indeed, 
the  only  solid  basis  of  individual  or  natural 
greatness.  This  may  be  traced  in  our  arrogant 
diplomacy  with  lesser  States,  our  thirst  for  ex- 
tended territory,  our  contempt  for  Indian  trea- 
ties, and  our  subjection  of  all  political  issues, 
whether  of  a moral  or  economic  nature,  to  the 
behests  of  mere  action,  policy,  or  party.  His- 
tory records  no  instance  of  true  national  great- 
ness achieved  at  such  sacrifice  of  substantial, 
genuine  principle. 

II.  Tampering  with  the  Union. 

A second  fatal  assumption  is,  that  the  bond  of 
Union  has  become  so  permanent,  peaceful,  and 
stable,  that  it  can  he  tampered  with  at  pleasure ; 
that  parties  may  even  stake  their  existence  or 
success  upon  Union  or  Disunion  issues,  for  merely 
adventitious  triumphs,  and  may  at  the  same  time 
take  for  granted  that  the  Union  will  suffer  no 
harm. 

Threats  of  disunion  have  been  made  for  many 
years ; hut  more  threats  have  been  made  for  mere 
party  effect  than  there  are  now  disunionists  in 
the  land.  If  the  entire  people  could  realize  that 
such  a question  can  no  more  he  trifled  with, 


ELEMENTS  OF  PRESENT  TROUBLE.  21 

without  injury  to  the  State,  than  private  virtue 
or  private  character  can  hear  a like  freedom 
without  degradation  or  taint,  we  should  he  more 
careful  to  guard  this  jewel  of  our  national  honor, 
at  whatever  sacrifice  of  party  or  place.  Besides 
this,  the  United  States  have  not  been  compelled 
to  fight  their  way  to  present  distinction  at  the 
cost  of  constant  sacrifice  and  pain.  Our  fathers 
did  indeed  prove  their  valor  and  achieve  their 
freedom  by  the  ordeal  of  fire  ; and  they,  at  least, 
appreciated  and  honored  the  freedom  thus  at- 
tained. But  for  nearly  half  a century  our  country 
has  advanced,  regardless  alike  of  jealousy  abroad 
and  any  and  all  deliberate  systems  of  develop- 
ment at  home.  It  has  grown  of  itself.  With 
government  and  institutions  apparently  perma- 
nent, with  all  the  advantages  of  freedom  in  the 
State,  and  a Christian  civilization  among  the 
people,  and  with  unparalleled  variety  and  rich- 
ness  of  soil  and  mineral  wealth,  we  have  not 
even  developed  our  accumulating  resources  as 
rapidly  as  Nature  and  Providence  have  brought 
them  to  light. 

We  have  come  to  consider  our  franchises,  our 
progress,  and  our  destiny,  as  fixed  quantities, 
subject  to  such  changes  only  as  will  perpetuate 
and  develop  them.  We  disregard  fundamental 
axioms  of  national  growth  and  unity,  we  despise 
the  idea  of  a higher  law  than  passing  expediency, 
and  rest  upon  the  flattering  conceit  that  nothing 


22 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


can  rend  or  shatter  the  political  fabric  here 
established. 

Our  strength,  our  wealth,  our  cultivation,  and 
our  liberty  have  made  us  arrogant,  self-sufficient, 
and  proud,  and  the  fruit  of  this  weakness  we 
now  gather  in  an  abundant  hut  baleful  harvest 
of  dissension,  discord,  and  threatened  dismem- 
berment. We  forget  that  Liberty,  like  chastity, 
is  jealous  of  reproach,  and  can  be  conserved  only 
by  an  unblemished  and  unsuspected  carriage. 

III.  Thirst  for  Office. 

Still  another  element  that  depreciates  and 
defiles  the  body  politic  lies  in  the  infatuation  for 
office,  which  has  become  more  wide-spread,  im- 
portunate, and  ruinous  to  public  virtue  than  the 
world  has  before  witnessed,  and  is  nearly  as  fatal 
to  the  State  as  dissolution  itself.  It  lies  at  the 
base  of  party  affinities,  shapes  its  policy,  fights 
its  battles,  and  demands  its  rewards.  But  woe  to 
that  party  which,  when  it  rises  into  place,  is  led 
to  make  mere  party  fealty  the  qualification  for 
preferment  to  places  of  trust,  rather  than  the 
intrinsic  worth  of  the  candidates  themselves. 

These  evils — the  banishment  of  moral  principle 
from  political  action,  the  trifling  with  our  liber- 
ties upon  the  conceit  of  their  own  inherent 
perpetuity,  and  thirst  for  political  office — have 
grown  with  our  growth,  have  driven  thousands 
of  our  most  patriotic  citizens  from  the  public 


ELEMENTS  OF  PRESENT  TROUBLE.  23 

service,  and  now  threaten  to  utterly  demoralize 
the  people  themselves,  or  to  engender  a morbid 
indifference  to  all  issues  hut  the  party  issues  of 
the  passing  hour. 

When  the  good  and  virtuous  feel  it  a degra- 
dation to  enter  the  political  arena,  it  always 
augurs  ill  for  the  public  weal,  even  although 
their  isolation  and  neglect  of  duty  cannot  excuse 
them  for  their  share  of  responsibility  for  the 
very  consequences  they  deplore. 

All  these  elements  of  mischief  have  had  their 
share  in  the  palsy  which  has  seized  the  body 
politic  and  held  it  powerless  at  the  feet  of  rebel- 
lion or  factious  opposition  to  law. 

IV.  Failure  to  Appreciate  our  Peril. 

But  there  is  yet  another  element  inherent  in  a 
peaceful  and  law-abiding  State,  the  operation  of 
which  facilitates  political  treason,  while  it  insures 
the  punishment  of  other  crimes.  Whatever  may 
be  the  daring  of  parties,  all  alike  profess  allegiance 
to  the  fundamental  law,  and  all  good  citizens  are 
reluctant  to  believe  in  a systematic  endeavor  to 
overthrow  it.  This  very  regard  for  peace  re- 
strains them  from  stern  preparatory  measures 
for  the  suppression  of  organizations,  which,  after 
all,  may  show  but  the  ebullition  of  hasty  temper, 
indulged  through  the  legitimate  organs  of  free 
speech  and  a free  press.  The  line  is  so  narrow 
that  bounds  the  privilege  and  the  treason,  that 


24 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


the  faithful  citizen  is  only  able  to  meet  the  evil 
when  the  traitor  casts  off  disguise,  and  stands 
forth  at  an  armed  advantage,  to  overturn  the 
State.  Nothing  hut  an  immediate  and  over- 
whelming rally  of  loyal  citizens  can  prevent  a 
transient  victory  for  the  disorganizers,  if  the 
ramifications  of  the  plot  have  been  extended,  the 
precautions  ample,  and  the  overt  offence  be,  at 
last,  sufficiently  bold. 

These  are  a few  of  the  leading  elements  which 
have  borne  a significant  part  in  shaping  the 
present  national  issues.  It  would  not  he  hazard- 
ous to  predicate  upon  these  those  earlier  disaffec- 
tions  which  threatened  the  internal  tranquillity 
of  the  nation,  hut  were  quelled  for  the  moment. 
Even  as  to  those,  it  is  a question  whether  the 
hold  vindication  of  law  by  the  Government  did 
not  accomplish  more  than  the  contemporary 
compromises,  so  called,  and  whether,  had  the 
latter  been  wanting,  we  might  not  stand  to-day 
at  a point  far  more  advanced  in  social  and  politi- 
cal greatness,  and  be  free  from  the  peculiar  issues 
which,  by  those  very  compromises,  were  only 
fostered,  and  thereby  transmitted  with  an  ac- 
cumulated intensity  and  virulence  of  operation 
and  spirit. 

V.  Question  of  Slavery. 

It  would  he  violence  to  the  subject  not  to 
recognize  the  palpable  fact  that  the  elements  of 


ELEMENTS  OF  PRESENT  TROUBLE.  25 

political  prostration  and  decay,  already  alluded 
to,  have  derived  peculiar  force  and  vitality  from 
the  presence  and  operation  of  the  abnormal 
system  of  human  slavery.  Though  the  present 
generation  is  not  responsible  for  its  introduction, 
though  the  founders  of  the  Republic  deplored  its 
existence  and  erected  their  temple  of  liberty  upon 
foundations  inconsistent  with  its  perpetuity  and 
expansion,  and  though,  like  all  other  systems  of 
oppression  and  wrong,  its  doom  is  certain,  it 
does,  nevertheless,  exist,  and  affect  the  entire 
social  and  political  fabric  of  the  State.  Our  past 
career  proves,  however,  that  the  nation  can 
prosper  and  advance,  even  under  the  weight  of 
this  burden ; and  that,  with  a genuine  patriotism 
diffused  through  all  hearts  and  sections,  we  can 
still  labor  earnestly  and  unitedly  for  the  public 
weal.  But  it  is  equally  true  that,  in  States  which 
entertain  this  domestic  institution,  the  funda- 
mental elements  of  discord,  before  adverted  to, 
have  had  peculiar  force  and  sanction.  Timid  in 
the  presence  of  superior  and  controlling  forces, 
indebted  to  the  law  of  toleration,  rather  than 
that  of  nature  or  revelation,  for  its  continuance 
and  power,  it  cannot  fail  to  be  anti-democratic  in 
essence,  and  aristocratic  in  manifestation  and 
tone.  Religion  and  true  loyalty  to  country  are 
indeed  as  purely  and  nobly  cherished  where 
slavery  has  its  foothold  as  elsewhere ; and  when 
these  hold  in  subjection  to  their  redeeming  and 


26 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


ennobling  work  its  operation  and  spirit,  we  may 
hope  for  an  end  to  all  onr  conflicts  and  its  own 
extinction ; but  when  tbe  animns  of  human 
slavery  becomes  the  absorbing  sentiment  of  any 
ambitions  clique  or  faction,  and  rules  by  its  own 
inherent  demands  and  necessities,  the  confusion 
of  its  advocates  or  the  ruin  of  the  nation  are  the 
sole  alternatives. 

I say  this  much,  not  by  way  of  party  logic, 
nor  from  failure  to  appreciate  the  virtue,  self- 
denial,  and  patriotism  of  the  South ; nay,  rather 
because,  knowing  these  well  in  their  purity  and 
value,  I behold  their  exponents  silenced  or  over- 
shadowed by  the  more  daring  and  unscrupulous 
manifestations  of  the  turbulent  and  rebellious. 

OUR  PRESENT  STATUS. 

We  have  passed  through  a constitutional  elec- 
tion of  a Chief  Magistrate  of  the  United  States. 
He  received  the  electoral  vote  of  a majority  of 
the  States,  representing  two-thirds  of  the  popula- 
tion, material  wealth,  and  physical  power  of  the 
nation.  Those  States  accept  the  Constitution  as 
it  is,  and,  further,  avow  their  readiness  to  surren- 
der all  mere  matters  of  construction  to  the  author- 
ity having  the  matter  in  charge.  They  would  go 
farther  than  this,  and  settle  beyond  reasonable 
cavil  all  parts  of  the  organic  law  which  need 
distinct  explanation,  if  such  there  be,  to  render 
the  whole  more  harmonious  and  complete. 


OUR  PRESENT  STATUS. 


27 


The  government,  elected  by  the  people,  assumes 
the  reins  of  power.  In  their  charge  are  placed 
the  care  of  the  public  property,  the  vindication 
of  the  public  honor,  the  assurance  of  the  public 
peace.  Land,  wherever  situated,  forts,  however 
located,  treasure,  wherever  deposited,  belong  to 
the  entire  people,  and  no  section  can,  of  right, 
arrogate  a claim  to  any  specific  or  distributive 
share,  or  legally  alienate  from  the  -Federal  centre 
its  possession  and  control. 

The  obligation  rests  upon  the  government  to 
protect  each  and  every  citizen,  wherever  located, 
from  illegal  arrest,  and  the  destruction  of  his 
constitutional  franchise  and  rights.  If  he  be 
oppressed  by  few  or  many,  it  matters  not.  If  he 
be  imperilled,  or  overawed  in  attempted  self- 
vindication of  those  rights  by  organized  violators 
of  the  public  peace,  his  claim  for  full  and  ade- 
quate redress  is  not  impaired ; but,  on  the  con- 
trary, it  is  increased  in  proportion  as  he  loses 
all  other  methods  of  redress,  and  is  forced  to 
look  to  the  central  power  for  any  possible  relief. 
While,  therefore,  this  government  is  powerless 
to  usurp  undelegated  authority,  it  cannot  shrink 
from  that  which  it  is  sworn  to  exercise.  It  may, 
and  should,  exhaust  peaceful  and  conciliatory 
measures  with  the  offenders ; it  may  adapt  its 
policy,  so  far  as  practicable,  to  subdue  excite- 
ment and  ensure  reflection  on  the  part  of  the 
disappointed  or  rebellious;  but  it  cannot  extend 


28 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


such  measures  to  abnegation  of  its  own  superi- 
ority without  becoming,  in  time,  traitor  to  the 
people  and  State.  Acting  under  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  and  bound  by  its  provisions, 
the  extent  of  any  disaffection  cannot  change  or 
impair  the  duty,  hut  rather  must  enhance  the 
responsibility,  at  least  until  by  other  and  legiti- 
mate methods  the  existing  relations  of  the  parties 
shall  be  determined,  or  shall  he  predicated  upon 
a new  and  different  fundamental  basis. 

EXPEDIENCY  AND  SANCTION. 

All  questions  of  expediency  and  peaceful  ad- 
justment lose  force  and  value  as  soon  as  they 
cease  to  operate  as  remedies  for  the  evils  threat- 
ened. The  use  of  sanctions  and  the  vindications 
of  authority  must  then  be  interposed  at  the  very 
risk  of  war  itself ; nay,  Avar  exists  before  a bloiv 
is  struck,  and  the  extent  and  nature  of  its  mani- 
festations must  determine  the  appliances  which 
shall  be  rallied  for  its  arrest.  I arrogate  to  my- 
self no  special  office  as  teacher  or  guide ; hut  as 
citizens,  let  us  not  prove  blind  to  the  issue  that 
is  upon  us.  While  we  have  for  days,  and  weeks, 
and  months,  plead  for  almost  any  relief  from 
war,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  a greater  evil 
than  war  may  befall  us.  I would  that  we  could 
seriously  appreciate  our  exact  standpoint,  and 
feel  that  Ave  ought  not,  must  not,  simply  look  to 
our  own  individual  concerns,  as  a State,  or  sec- 


OUR  NATIONAL  PRESTIGE. 


29 


tion,  but  remember  that  we  stand  responsible  to 
millions,  in  the  disaffected  States  as  well  as  here 
at  borne,  for  the  assurance  to  them  of  liberties 
now  in  peril. 

With  this  general  statement  of  the  case,  let 
me  pass  to  consider  very  briefly  our  position  as 
a nation,  under  the  Constitution  as  it  is,  the 
nature  and  tendency  of  the  disaffection  as  it 
exists,  and  our  responsibility,  whether  willing  or 
unwilling,  for  the  perpetuation  of  that  Constitu- 
tion, and  the  liberty  it  secures. 

OUR  NATIONAL  PRESTIGE. 

Our  national  position  is  a proud  and  noble  one. 
Of  all  the  European  struggles  for  liberty  since 
our  own  Republic  has  held  a place  among  the 
nations,  not  one  has  originated,  advanced,  or 
come  to  an  issue,  without  a decided  moral  sup- 
port from  the  United  States.  Its  proud  isolation 
from  external  attack,  and  its  matured  power  and 
influence,  have  given  shape  to  aspirations,  and 
engendered  hope  of  ultimate  freedom,  the  world 
over.  The  policy  of  every  maritime  State  has 
been  liberalized,  softened,  and  to  a large  extent 
modelled  upon  the  assurance  of  our  own  expand- 
ing greatness  upon  the  sea.  Interior  powers 
have  learned  to  pay  us  the  same  respect.  Our 
position,  midway  between  civilized  Europe  and 
half-pagan  Asia,  has  given  us  the  locus  in  quo, 
by  which,  with  corresponding  physical  power 


30 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


and  training,  we  can  command  the  trade  of  the 
world.  The  very  treaties  which  now  govern  the 
commercial  relations  of  European  States  in  times 
of  war,  have  been  initiated  by  the  hold  declara- 
tion of  a more  enlightened  policy  by  the  United 
States.  The  surrender  of  the  right  of  search,  the 
immunity  of  the  goods  of  neutrals,  the  abandon- 
ment by  Denmark  of  her  impositions  upon  the 
trade  of  the  Baltic,  the  independence  of  the 
western  continent  from  foreign  control,  have  all 
grown  out  of  our  own  just  demands,  our  asserted 
power,  and  our  commercial  pre-eminence.  The 
title  of  American  citizen  has  become  a credential 
of  safety  and  honor,  reverenced  by  struggling 
commons,  respected  by  governing  tyrants.  Peace 
with  America  has  become  a desideratum,  and 
threatened  war  with  America  would  derange 
the  finances,  impair  the  prosperity,  and  imperil 
the  peace  of  all  nations.  American  discovery, 
American  invention,  American  science,  no  less 
than  American  power,  wealth,  and  liberty,  have 
raised  her  to  that  fulcrum  of  force  from  which 
to  move  and  direct  the  world.  Fealty  to  our 
own  boasted  liberty,  justice  in  dealing,  and  un- 
swerving loyalty  to  principle,  would  secure  us 
the  title  and  influence  of  the  model  State. 

TIIE  CONTRAST. 

ETo  pen  of  mine,  nor  imagination  of  man,  can 
portray  the  contrast,  when  dissolution,  degrada- 


THE  CONTRAST. 


31 


tion,  and  cowardice  shall  characterize  the  once 
United  States ; when,  torn  to  fragments,  bereft  of 
dignity  and  power,  they  shall  become  the  prey 
of  internal  discord  and  foreign  license.  A failure 
in  Hungary,  with  our  example  still  bright  and 
illustrious,  is  less  a failure  than  a temporary 
check.  A failure  with  us  is  signal,  fatal,  and 
universal.  It  cannot  but  relax  the  restraints  of 
law,  let  loose  the  passions  of  the  evil-minded, 
undermine  the  confidence  of  the  good,  threaten 
the  integrity  of  personal  rights  and  personal 
industry,  and  dissolve  all  political  relations  into 
anarchy  and  desolation,  or  breed  some  new  com- 
bination ; for,  while  that  which  is  the  fruit  of 
willing  compromise  may  live  and  prosper,  as  if 
no  difference  had  once  alienated  the  parties,  that, 
which  the  majority  yield  to  the  mere  force  of 
intimidation  and  pressure,  will  prove  the  tunic 
of  hTessus,  fatal  only  to  the  betrayer  of  virtue  and 
truth. 

Such  is  our  high  position  among  the  nations, 
and  such  the  alternative  with  which  we  are 
threatened.  What  is  our  condition  at  home  ? 
We  are  even  told  that  we  must  abandon  the 
old  Constitution,  or  perish.  Rebellion,  growing 
hourly,  and  with  increasing  violence  and  force, 
can  indeed  point  to  no  liberties  which  the  Union 
cannot  preserve,  no  fundamental  or  practical 
franchise  wThich  the  government  of  the  Union 
will  not  secure.  It  demands  a positive  surrender 


32 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


of  Federal  authority  to  the  minority  choice  of  a 
restricted  section  of  the  country,  or  the  issue  of 
civil  conflict.  It  is  not  my  design  to  ask  by  what 
avenue  this  evil  has  thus  matured  and  waxed 
turbulent  and  daring.  It  is  none  the  less  press- 
ing and  actual,  whatever  its  origin  and  growth. 
It  is  enough  for  the  honest  man  and  patriot,  the 
man  who  loves  liberty  at  the  risk  of  offending 
clique  or  party,  that  it  exists,  and  that  he  has  to 
meet  the  duties  it  involves. 

If  the  question  were  simply  that  of  a willing 
and  legalized  separation  of  free  States,  no  matter 
how  my  national  pride  might  suffer,  no  matter 
how  much  we  should  feel  degraded  among  the 
nations  for  such  wilful  surrender  of  our  glorious 
birthright  at  the  behests  of  the  institution  which 
would  he  the  wedge  of  our  separation,  I,  for  one, 
could  trust  Providence  and  the  civilized  world 
with  the  reputation  and  destiny  of  twenty  millions 
of  freemen. 


THE  PEOPLE  DISCARDED. 

But  that  issue,  however  and  wherever  mooted, 
is  not  a practical  issue  in  the  matter  that  now 
challenges  our  attention.  The  people  at  large 
have  adopted  no  authorized  methods  by  which 
even  to  consider  the  claims  of  so  humiliating  an 
issue.  More  than  that,  I affirm  that  no  man, 
wherever  he  may  live,  and  whatever  part  he  may 
hear  in  this  struggle,  can  say  with  truth  that  a 


THE  PEOPLE  DISCARDED. 


33 


single  one  of  these  thirty-four  States  has,  by  a 
legal  and  fair  method,  or  by  any  method  what- 
ever, obtained  the  deliberate  assent  of  its  people 
to  this  rebellion.  Not  a single  Court  of  Appeals, 
even  in  the  seven  extreme  States,  could  fail  to 
declare  unconstitutional  and  void  the  acts  even 
of  its  own  disorganizing  convention,  upon  a fair 
trial  of  its  acts  by  its  own  fundamental  law’,  in- 
dependent of  that  of  the  United  States.  In  no 
one  State  have  a majority  of  the  legal  voters  so 
expressed  a choice.  Even  in  Texas,  the  vdiole 
vote  was  comparatively  limited  and  insignificant. 
In  no  single  State  was  the  so-called  election  of 
delegates  permitted  to  reach  the  suffrages  of  the 
remote  tovmships  and  common  people.  Of  the 
choice  of  the  remaining  slave  States,  upon  a free, 
untrammelled  expression,  I think  no  man  can 
entertain  a doubt.  Even  the  wildest  disunionist 
in  the  border  States  trembles  lest  the  people  shall 
be  fully  and  freely  heard.  In  Alabama,  Georgia, 
Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Texas,  there  are 
thousands  who  writhe  under  the  swelling  despot- 
ism, and  only  need  a sure  support  to  vindicate 
their  rights.  They  need  that  protection  which 
is  their  right  and  safeguard.  Many  who  cry 
“ hands  off",”  wish  peace ; but  many,  many  more, 
ask  for  peace,  only  to  rally  the  hosts  of  evil  and 
ensure  a more  widespread  desolation. 


2* 


34 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


FIRMNESS  OUR  ONLY  SAFETY. 

I ask,  then,  this  simple  question  : Are  we  not 
impelled  by  highest  duty  to  stand  by  the  loyal 
and  the  true  ? Shall  we  despise  their  cry  and 
neglect  their  liberation  for  fear  of  a contest  with 
their  oppressors  ? 

Ho  man  doubts  that  early  and  firm  support 
would  have  given  the  Union  men  the  control  of 
every  State.  The  tide  grew  only  because  it 
could  grow  unrestrained.  If  there  had  been  no 
Constitution,  no  courts,  no  law,  no  process,  no 
public  sentiment,  no  religion,  the  usurpation 
could  scarcely  have  been  more  steady,  high- 
handed, and  triumphant.  Ho  other  government 
in  the  world  could,  with  open,  unrebuked  treason 
in  its  legislative  halls,  have  stood  an  hour,  unless 
the  traitors  assumed  of  it,  as  they  seem  to  have 
done,  that  it  was  respectable  in  mechanism,  hut, 
practically,  fit  only  to  be  wound  up  quadrennially 
for  the  distribution  of  spoils  and  office. 

Human  wisdom  trusted  in  peaceful  measures, 
and  if  precaution  and  comity  had  gone  hand  in 
hand,  all  would  have  been  well ; but  now  the 
issue  comes  on  apace,  and  nothing  is  left  hut 
vindication  of  authority.  I would  go  to  the  ex- 
treme of  honorable  concession,  hut  when  conces- 
sion aggravates  rebellion,  when  its  announcement 
is  received  as  weakness,  when  the  proffer  of  the 
hand  is  disdainfully  rejected,  and  the  hours  of 


FIRMNESS  OUR  ONLY  SAFETY. 


35 


lenity  are  employed  as  a season  of  preparation 
for  a fiercer  conflict,  concession  becomes  mad- 
ness : it  only  aggravates  the  demands  of  the 
aggressor,  and  disheartens  the  real  lover  of  honor 
and  country. 

To  say  nothing  of  public  credit,  national  honor, 
and  the  vitality  of  the  general  issue,  we  are  pressed 
to  the  point  of  the  sword.  Tort  Sumter  has 
been  attacked  and  taken  ;*  Fort  Pickens  may  he 
stormed.  But  where  does  their  change  of  occu- 
pants relieve  the  body  politic  ? Since  first  their 
surrender  was  mooted,  the  times  have  changed, 
and  to  make  the  latter  of  these  a voluntary  pre- 
cedent for  similar  withdrawals  from  other  Federal 
soil,  if  it  can  now  he  held,  at  whatever  risk,  would 
be  to  hind  the  yoke  upon  the  deserving  and  loyal 
of  the  Southland  render  their  emancipation  from 
that  yoke  the  work  of  a more  fearful  struggle 
among  themselves.  Regarded  separate  and  apart 
from  the  rights  of  the  North,  East,  and  West,  in 
and  to  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Gulf, 
and  the  unnumbered  interests  which  are  thereby 
inwrought  into  the  very  national  fabric  itself,  can 
we  do  less  for  the  South  itself,  in  this  exhibition 
of  its  own  status,  than  vindicate  law,  assert 
authority,  and  leave  the  issue  with  the  God  of 
battles  ? 

Such  an  issue,  full  as  it  is  of  sacrifice  and  hard- 


* “ Fort  Sumter  may  fall”  (as  first  delivered). 


36 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


ship,  is  to  be  met  with  zeal  and  holy  boldness. 
Better,  far  better,  that  we  should  be  hurled  into 
civil  conflict  than  wilt  under  the  scourge  of  a 
despotism  more  severe,  and  a treason  more  vile, 
than  the  world  has  ever  witnessed.  Tell  me  not 
that  you  would  spare  the  flow  of  fraternal  blood, 
and  prefer  rather  the  lash  of  the  master  and  the 
sway  of  a despot.  War,  my  countrymen,  is 
indeed  a vast  evil ; hut  there  is  a more  fearful 
alternative,  the  surrender  of  our  dearest  birth- 
right at  the  behest  of  despots  and  traitors. 

If  the  legacy  of  the  Fathers  be  no  longer  worth 
preservation ; if  law  be  a bugbear,  and  obedience 
a sham ; if  the  State  owe  nothing  to  the  people, 
and  the  people  have  nothing  to  expect  of,  or  to 
render  to,  the  State : what  a mockery  has  our 
Union  become,  what  a nuisance  upon  the  face 
of  the  earth ! 

And  yet,  look  at  the  elements  which  exist  and 
would  to-day  triumphantly  vindicate  our  honor 
if  they  could  he  brought  into  prompt  and  healthy 
exercise.  Education  is  more  general  and  Chris- 
tianity is  more  diffused,  in  the  United  States,  than 
elsewhere  in  the  world.  The  principles  of  gen- 
uine liberty  and  the  maxims  of  universal  freedom 
are  better  understood,  and  more  heartily  cher- 
ished, in  the  United  States  than  elsewhere  in  the 
world.  The  instrumentalities  for  their  diffusion, 
the  range  of  their  influence,  and  the  field  for  their 
application,  are  here  pre-eminently  displayed; 


THE  PRACTICAL  ISSUE. 


37 


and  the  interests  at  stake,  in  their  firm  and  per- 
petual establishment,  are  here  more  precious  and 
multiform  than  elsewhere  in  the  world.  The 
moral  power  which  underlies  our  institutions,  if 
brought  into  exercise  and  made  the  inspiration 
of  a just  cause,  would  he  invincible  against  the 
world.  When  our  existence  is  threatened,  as 
at  present,  these  are  the  elements  which  should 
spring  into  the  issue,  and  bend  all  parties  and 
factions  to  their  control. 

And  now  to  one  more  practical  question  before 
I dismiss  the  subject. 

THE  PRACTICAL  ISSUE. 

All  the  grievances  of  which  the  extreme  vio- 
lators of  law  complained  before  the  people  a few 
months  ago,  are  ready  of  adjustment.  No  man 
dare  deny  it.  What  more  would  they  have  ? 
Absolute,  unqualified  revolution ! absolute,  un- 
qualified re-organization  ! There  will  even  be 
found  men  before  thirty  days  shall  expire,  and 
such  there  are  now,  if  they  dare  avow  their 
views — unless  we  burst  from  the  chains  that  now 
fetter  us,  and  rush  to  arms  to  vindicate  our  im- 
perilled liberties  and  rights,  and  strike  down  all 
traitors,  wherever  found — I say,  unless  you  do 
this,  and  do  it  now , there  will  he  found  men  who 
would  rather  accept  the  code  of  the  rebel  league, 
their  governing  system,  and  their  leaders,  ignore 
the  claims  of  the  people  and  the  heritage  of  the 


38 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


past,  dissolve  the  government  of  the  Fathers,  and 
accept  the  counterfeit,  than  spend  one  ounce  of 
treasure  or  risk  one  drop  of  blood  to  save  the 
Constitution  as  it  is.  The  Union,  purchased  at 
such  a sacrifice,  would  be  a hissing  and  a by- 
word, a foul  and  loathsome  thing,  which  it  were 
religion  to  trample  on  and  annihilate.  But,  be- 
cause there  are  always  pests  in  society,  desperate 
robbers  and  constitutional  thieves,  we  do  not 
despair  of  law  and  justice;  neither  because  there 
may  be  traitors  to  Liberty  and  the  State  at  our 
own  hearthstones,  will  we  abandon  Liberty  and 
the  State.  Rather  let  us  stand  by  the  Constitu- 
tion as  it  is,  meeting  with  warm  hearts  and  hands 
those  political  brethren  who,  differing  in  non- 
essentials,  are  true  to  the  fundamental  code  of 
our  national  being,  and,  at  any  risk,  however 
trying,  or  any  sacrifice,  however  costly,  execute 
the  law,  protect  the  oppressed,  vindicate  our 
honor,  and  perpetuate  the  State. 

We  may  shrink  from  the  encounter  ; we  may 
dread  the  issue ; but  no  struggle  for  the  right  is 
so  hazardous  as  its  betrayal ; no  blood  is  so  costly 
as  that  which  strangles  the  coward’s  heart,  rather 
than  be  spent  for  life  and  honor. 

We  are  fast  enough  already  to  spend  blood  and 
treasure  to  seize  the  land  of  the  stranger.  Let  us 
now  see  if  we  have  the  nerve  to  maintain  our  own. 

Let  me  not  be  misunderstood.  I advocate  no 
special  party  tenet  in  this  extremity.  I would 


THE  PRACTICAL  ISSUE. 


39 


use  all  the  appliances  that  sound  patriotism  and 
solid  judgment  can  command ; but  we  are  at  war. 
It  is  our  own  existence  that  is  at  stake.  The 
shedding  of  blood  is  a mere  contingency  in  the 
contest,  neither  commencing  nor  ending  the 
struggle. 

And  what  is  life  to  liberty ! What  is  the  loss  of 
life  to  the  sacrifice  of  all  we  prize  dear ! WTien 
the  day  comes  that  merchandise  and  commerce, 
office  and  party,  a venture  for  political  change 
for  the  sake  of  the  transfer  of  political  power, 
and  the  matter  of  income  and  interest  shall  out- 
weigh a high  and  holy  devotion  to  country,  and 
defile  its  shrine  by  their  consecration  as  the  God 
of  America,  let  the  earth  lament  and  the  land 
cry  out,  for,  surely,  the  heaviest  of  God’s  judg- 
ments shall  be  upon  the  people. 

But  we  shall  not  fail.  The  age,  which  is  an 
age  of  struggle,  will  find  America  rooted  to  the 
cause  of  Freedom.  The  Government  may  wither 
for  a time  through  the  apathy  of  the  people ; the 
Union  may  be  embarrassed,  threatened,  and  ap- 
parently dissolved,  through  the  time-serving  and 
cowardly  handling  of  the  politician,  the  timid- 
ity of  the  press,  or  the  uninterrupted  sweep  of 
high  treason  ; hut,  though  shame  shall  mantle 
the  cheek,  and  we  hide  the  head,  as  we  style  our- 
selves Americans,  the  remnant  shall  be  faithful, 
and  all  our  struggles,  however  fierce,  and  all  our 
burdens,  however  vast,  shall  be  as  the  refiner’s 


40 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


fire,  to  purify  the  cause,  and  push  on  the  career 
of  genuine  freedom  to  its  ultimate  supremacy. 

The  Hour  which  brings  the  Peril,  already  de- 
fines the  Duty  and  the  Deliverance. 

We  shall  not  abuse  our  trust.  The  exalted 
privilege  of  leading  the  nations  will  not  lapse 
from  our  control.  Be  not  deceived ! The  people, 
prone  to  peace,  and  dreading  the  inroad  of  red 
war  more  than  Pestilence  or  Famine,  are  com- 
ing with  calm  and  deliberate  minds  to  that 
sublime  hut  solemn  conclusion,  that  they  will 
offer  their  lives  and  fortunes,  a free-will  offering, 
upon  the  altar  of  Country,  Liberty,  and  Independ- 
ence. I hear  the  shackles  of  party  clang  as  they 
are  dashed  upon  the  earth.  I see  the  bonds  part 
that  bind  the  devotees  of  self  and  mammon.  I 
see  treasure  offered  without  stint,  or  limit,  to 
purchase  hack  the  rights  imperilled.  In  the  lull 
which  follows  the  fall  of  Sumter  I see  the  pre- 
sage of  a tempest ! It  will  gather  volume,  and 
roll  from  the  East  and  Horth  and  West  until  you 
shall  rejoice  in  every  sacrifice  of  treasure,  and 
glory  in  every  drop  of  blood  expended  for  the 
public  weal ; for  the  whole  continent  shall  be 
free,  and  the  nations  of  the  world  shall  pay  you 
homage. 


THE  WAR:  ITS  NATURE  AND  PROSPECTS, 
ITS  MORAL  AND  SOCIAL  EVILS,  AND  ITS 
ULTIMATE  RESULTS. 


DELIVERED  TO  THE  SOLDIERS  OF  INDIANA,  AT  INDI- 
ANAPOLIS, IND.,  FEBRUARY  22,  1S63,  WHILE  COLONEL 
OF  THE  18TH  U.  S.  INFANTRY,  COMMANDING  THE  POST. 


Soldiers  of  the  Republic  ! — I greet  you,  on 
this  anniversary  day,  with  fresh  assurance  that 
the  memory  of  Washington  retains  its  precious- 
ness and  power.  His  offices  and  trials,  his  -warn- 
ings and  his  counsels,  not  only  survive  His  de- 
parture from  the  scenes  of  earth,  hut  their  vitality 
and  force  still  energize  the  body  politic  and  in- 
spire the  people  he  established  with  the  senti- 
ments of  pure  and  substantial  liberty.  His 
panegyric  is  written  in  our  every-day  history. 
Observe  its  issues,  and  remember  him. 

True  it  is  that  the  tide  of  civil  prosperity  which 
has  borne  the  nation  on  to  unexampled  wealth 
and  expansion  since  his  departure  seems  checked 
by  the  crosses  of  an  unexampled  war.  True  it  is 


42 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


that  the  citizen  has  left  the  furrow  and  the  work- 
shop, the  desk  and  the  office,  for  the  issues  of 
battle.  True  it  is  that  war  rages.  From  lake 
to  gulf,  from  ocean  to  ocean,  men  arm  to  fight. 
A nation  most  free,  a people  most  intelligent,  a 
community  most  richly  endowed  with  intellect- 
ual, religious,  and  physical  virus,  have  directed 
the  forum,  the  pulpit,  and  their  exhaustless  wealth 
of  material  power  to  the  art  of  destroying  life. 
Invention  writhes  for  grander  results,  that  it  may 
vanquish  or  surpass  results  hitherto  attained. 
Sea  and  land  groan  beneath  the  weight  of  mon- 
strous engines,  designed  to  overthrow  the  labor 
of  the  last.  In  proportion  as  modern  skill  had 
gathered  up  the  agencies  for  that  higher  type  of 
civil  life  inaugurated  by  the  Fathers,  so  does 
modern  art  surpass  herself  in  the  supply  of 
means  to  slay  and  waste. 

Who  are  the  people  panoplied  for  the  battle  ? 
What  cause  has  called  to  arms  a mighty  nation  ? 
Why  is  treasure  offered  without  stint,  and  blood 
without  measure?  Why  does  the  father  send 
forth  his  first-born,  and  his  last-born,  then  follow 
himself , while  mother  and  wife  bid  them  all  alike 
a hearty  God-speed  ? See ! All  domestic  ties 
relax  their  grasp,  freely  to  surrender  the  loved 
ones  to  the  embrace  of  the  great  destroyer ! 
Marvellous  spectacle  in  this  advanced  age  of 
human  progress ! Strange  tragedy,  wherein  a 
nation  acts  the  parts,  and  the  astonished  world 


THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  NEW.  43 

shrinks  hack  from  the  real  death  which  assails 
each  character  and  fills  each  scene  ! 

The  people  thus  panoplied  for  battle  are  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States  of  America.  They 
are  citizens , — self-thinking,  self-relying,  self-gov- 
erning citizens ! They  are  neither  slaves,  nor 
serfs,  nor  subjects,  hut  co-equals  in  governing 
and  educating  the  State.  Their  will  is  law. 
Their  law  is  the  crystallization  of  their  concur- 
rent will.  Their  country  is  the  matured  fruit  of 
many  generations  of  self-denying  toil.  Blood 
has  before  watered  the  earth,  that  they  might 
attain  their  present  ability  to  war.  The  sacri- 
fices of  those  generations  have  culminated  in  the 
gift  of  this  -wonderful  faculty  to  destroy. 

Their  country  has  been  the  model  and  admira- 
tion of  the  world,  and  no  less  the  terror  of  all 
-who  scorn  and  oppress  the  citizen.  The  centre, 
yes,  the  very  heart  of  the  new  -world  yields  this 
people  life,  and  all  its  throbs  so  energize  the 
body  politic  that  each  pulsation,  more  subtle  than 
the  electric  flow,  impels  all  other  nations  to  a 
higher  mode  of  life  and  culture. 

THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  NEW. 

You  whom  I now  address  are  citizens  as  well 
as  soldiers.  You  represent  the  mind  as  well  as 
the  muscle  and  the  martial  spirit  of  the  nation  ! 
Permit  me,  then,  on  this  sacred  day,  to  glance 
still  again  at  the  proportions  of  this  surpassing 


44 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


Commonwealth,  and  contrast  it  with  other  forms 
of  civil  life,  that  we  may  better  appreciate  its 
value,  and  may  more  courageously  dare  all  sac- 
rifices, to  hasten  that  perpetuity  which  we  feel 
and  know  to  he  ordained  of  Providence  for  the 
union  of  the  States. 

Its  founders  feared  God ! He  blessed  them  ! 
Their  sons  erected  the  sanctuary  in  their  villages, 
and  the  altar  by  their  hearth-stones.  Wherever 
in  the  desert  or  far-off  islands  of  the  sea  you  find 
the  word  of  God,  and  the  praise  of  God,  and  their 
blessed  fruit,  wherever  civilization  is  freshest, 
and  human  progress  the  best  developed,  you  will 
find  citizens  of  the  United  States.  Go  out  over 
the  world,  if  you  please,  to  learn  what  you  can- 
not learn  of  this  people. 

Behold  columns,  porticos,  and  temples,  now 
in  ruins, — ruins  of  the  past.  Will  they  develop 
man  ? There  is  no  life  nor  real  grandeur  there  ! 
Behold  the  effete  and  time-worn  dynasties  that 
faintly  imitate  the  prestige  of  barbaric  times,  now 
tottering  under  the  pressure  of  the  subjugated 
people,  who  yearn  and  toil  and  pant  for  their 
speedy  overthrow ! Do  they  develop  man,  they, 
whose  sphere  and  fashion  soon  shall  disappear 
before  the  onward  march  of  man,  to  assume  his 
rightful  place  upon  the  earth,  as  man  ? 

What  is  Art  in  the  old  world  hut  the  childish 
fondling  of  old-time  fiction  or  the  mythology  of 
the  ancients ! What  is  science  in  the  old  world 


THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  NEW. 


45 


but  a spasmodic  struggle  to  attain  a higher  sphere 
than  the  conditions  of  their  civil  life  can  justify  ! 
What  is  religion  in  the  old  world  but  the  worship 
of  the  mysterious  and  the  old,  for  mystery’s  sake, 
and  because  it  is  old ! What  is  invention  in  the 
old  world  but  a desperate  endeavor  to  rival  the 
progress  of  the  new  and  keep  in  life  the  civil 
state  which  is  already  overshadowed  by  the  new. 
What  in  the  old  world  is  old  that  does  not  find  a 
fresher,  better  type  in  the  institutions  of  the 
new  ? What  in  the  old  world  is  new,  that  has 
not  been  generated  by  some  precious  germ  wafted 
across  the  waters  from  the  new  ? What  is  there 
from  all  those  nations  to  engraft  upon  a fresh 
and  growing  Commonwealth  ? What  have  they 
for  your  envy,  what  for  your  profit,  beyond  the 
instructive  lessons  their  histories  impart  ? 

And  yet,  how  precious  are  the  memories  of 
the  Fathers  ! Hoble  souls  were  those,  to  rise  even 
in  the  middle  ages,  above  the  level  of  their  times, 
and  breathe  such  holy  fragrance  upon  the  land 
that  throughout  the  vales  of  Italy  and  of  France, 
along  the  hill-sides  of  Switzerland  and  Germany, 
on  the  plains  of  Poland  and  of  Hungary,  and  in 
unnumbered  other  lesser  States,  the  tree  of  lib- 
erty sprang  up  and  lived  in  the  very  teeth  of 
frowning  tyrants.  Hay,  more ! Let  us  do  honor 
to  the  long  succession  of  hallowed  names  which, 
from  the  earliest  date  of  the  Christian  epoch, 
maintained,  in  pure  and  glowing  heat,  the  embers 


46 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


of  the  sacred  fire,  and  preserved  those  precious 
leaves  of  the  tree  of  life,  and  those  holy  laws  of 
human  conduct  which  made  it  possible,  in  after- 
times, for  civil  freedom  to  emerge  and  culminate 
with  every  passing  age.  It  is  not  that  other  na- 
tions could  not  have  sooner  hurst  the  bonds  of 
feudal  power  to  revivify  the  earth  with  the  light 
of  a pure,  pervasive  liberty,  but  that  they  did  not; 
and  that  this  new  world  was  made  of  Heaven  the 
fulcrum  point,  from  which  that  liberty  might  work 
back  upon  the  struggling  nations  of  the  old. 

And  thus  it  is  that  this  people,  now  sublimely 
showing  forth  the  greatness  of  their  power  and 
the  terror  of  their  outstretched  arm,  can  bear  the 
stress,  and  meet  the  issues  here  involved. 

THE  LOYAL  ABE  PROSPEROUS. 

I said  war  rages ! It  is  the  great  American 
Republic  that  is  armed  for  battle.  Even  her 
children  mimic  war,  and  employ  for  toys  the 
sword  and.  drum  and  trumpet.  And  yet,  with 
all  the  din  of  preparation — with  all  the  munifi- 
cence of  expended  treasure — with  all  the  groan- 
ing arsenals  replete  with  instruments  of  death — 
with  all  the  array  of  marching  columns  and  long 
extended  fleets,  what  strange  facts  are  patent  to 
us  all.  The  earth  labors  to  outdo  herself!  The 
granaries  burst  with  plenty.  The  husbandman 
has  no  need  to  garner  up  for  future  use,  but 
yields  his  surfeit  to  other  nations  that  are  fed  by 


WHY  THIS  WAR. 


47 


this.  The  marts  of  trade  are  full  of  busy  life ! 
The  loom  hums  on  with  undiminished  zeal,  and 
the  steam-sped  car,  or  ship,  goes  out  and  comes 
again,  with  ever  expanding  and  multiplying 
profit.  Surely,  such  a nation  has  no  common 
mission  to  fulfil ! Surely,  this  war  now  waged 
needs  hut  a high  and  holy  impulse  to  place  this 
people  on  the  pinnacle  of  the  earth,  a beacon 
light  to  all,  the  deliverer  of  all. 

WHY  THIS  WAR. 

Why,  then,  this  war  ? I need  not  tread  upon 
party  issues.  I simply  recite  such  pregnant  facts 
as  point  my  lesson.  It  is  the  oft-told  tale  of 
human  struggle  to  he  free.  It  is  the  earnest  that 
the  citizen  Republic  will  vindicate  its  origin  in 
its  perfected  destiny.  It  is  the  daring  venture 
of  a great  and  mighty  people  to  teach  all  nations 
howT  other  nations  failed,  and,  therein,  to  peril 
even  the  national  life  itself,  upon  the  pledge,  to 
make  Freedom  a fact,  and  Liberty  a personal 
and  universal  experience. 

The  fundamental  cause  no  man  denies.  The 
maxims  of  human  pride,  and  the  pretensions  of 
the  few,  to  make  the  law  for  all,  which  bound 
tight  the  chains  about  the  patriots  of  earlier 
times,  began  to  exact  their  claims  upon  the 
heritage  of  the  Fathers.  That  which  was  abnor- 
mal and  strange,  in  a perfect  state,  but  was 
branded  upon  the  national  life  at  its  very  birth, 


48 


CBISIS  THOUGHTS. 


began  to  usurp  the  functions  of  the  State  it  lived 
upon.  The  exception,  unfortunately  induced, 
and  unhappily  transmitted,  assumed  to  become 
the  law , and  to  dictate  the  maxims  of  a Godless, 
cruel  age  to  an  age  of  Christian  truth  and  liberty. 
Not  content  with  the  indulgence  of  the  funda- 
mental law  which  gave  it  tolerance,  while  antici- 
pating its  early  end,  this  excrescence  of  human 
slavery  assumed  to  mould  the  public  shape  in 
harmony  with  its  own  deformities.  Exactions, 
consented  to,  assumed  the  tone  and  place  of 
intrinsic  rights.  Resistance  withheld,  but  tem- 
pered its  appetite  for  new  demands.  As  its  por- 
tion of  the  national  substance  wasted,  under  its 
baleful  creed,  it  coveted  the  richer  portion  of  the 
Commonwealth,  and  cried,  give — give — until  the 
nation,  heedless  of  all  former  distinctions  of 
party  or  belief,  cried  out,  with  an  united  voice, 
“ Thus  far , and  no  farther , shall  thou  go.  Here 
shall  thy  proud  waves  be  stayed.” 

Then  came  outspoken,  bold,  and  defiant  asser- 
tions of  the  true  character  of  its  mission,  in  a 
land  of  liberty,  to  rule  all  or  ruin  all.  The  Con- 
stitution, so  long  invoked  as  its  protector,  was 
derided  and  despised ! Treason  stalked  in  high 
places,  and  rude  arms  were  stretched  out  to 
tear  down  the  pillars  of  a nation’s  pride.  What 
matter  that  the  Republic  outvied  the  world  in 
power  and  glory  ! What  matter  that  our  com- 
merce led  all  nations  ! What  matter  that,  stand- 


WHY  THIS  WAR. 


49 


ing  between  both  oceans,  we  held  the  keys  of 
both  oceans  and  the  continents  they  laved  ! What 
matter  that  the  world  was  fed  at  our  hands,  and 
that  American  invention  had  furnished  the  mo- 
tive power  of  all  human  progress,  and  the  vehicle 
for  the  electric  flow  of  human  thought ! What 
matter  that  here  was  an  asylum  for  the  weary, 
worn-out  exile  from  despotic  climes ; that  here 
Religion  had  her  altars ; Education  her  throne ; 
and  Purity  and  moral  health  pervaded  the  civil 
and  the  social  life  ! 

All  these  (never  so  prosperous  when  freedom 
is  suppressed)  were  so  many  galling  proofs  of  the 
goodness  and  preciousness  of  the  nation’s  life. 
These , all  these,  were  living,  breathing,  speaking 
warnings  to  forbear.  But,  no  ! Even  the  pres- 
ence of  the  nation’s  flag,  the  garb  of  the  nation’s 
soldier,  the  ermine  of  the  nation’s  judge,  the 
footsteps  of  a brother,  coming  from  a State 
intact  by  the  leprosy  that  was  working  in  the 
vitals  of  the  weaker  and  offended  part,  was  as 
wormwood,  to  be  cast-out.. 

The  vindication  of  authority,  was  miscalled 
force.  The  issue  of  legal  process,  was  an  usurpa- 
tion upon  vested  rights.  The  protection  of  the 
nation’s  flag,  and  giving  sustenance  to  the  na- 
tion’s soldier  starving  in  a beleaguered  fort,  was 
considered  war  upon  an  independent  State  : until 
Sumter — synonymous  with  the  glory  of  our  war 
for  National  Independence,  and  to  be  known  in 

8 


50 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


future  annals  as  the  beacon  spot  from  which 
gleamed  forth  the  fires  of  universal  Liberty — 
surrendered , but  without  disgrace.  When,  from 
its  ramparts,  the  flag  of  freedom  disappeared, 
Freedom  herself  mourned  not!  The  earth,  in- 
deed, trembled  as  her  sons  rushed  to  arms  ! Such 
power  as  no  monarch  ever  boasted  responded  to 
lier  cry  ! But  she,  rising  to  the  clouds,  took  new 
inspiration  from  the  Infinite,  as  the  good  Angel 
of  Providence  was  permitted  to  unfold  the  issues 
of  the  coming  struggle.  She  beheld  a nation, 
loving  peace,  give  up  the  sweet  luxury  of  peace 
to  fight  for  truth  and  liberty.  She  saw  the  bonds 
of  party  untwine  and  estranged  brothers  harmo- 
nize for  the  public  weal.  She  beheld  armies 
marshalled,  battles  lost  and  won,  the  faithful  and 
the  faithless  alike  to  fall  upon  the  field  of  strife  ! 
She  beheld  the  sacrifice  of  noble  souls  and  count- 
less treasure  ! She  heard  the  widow’s  wail  and 
the  orphan’s  cry ! She  saw  campaigns  begun 
and  ended,  and  men’s  hearts  to  fail  them,  while 
still  they  struggled  on  ! She  beheld  new  and 
still  newer  sacrifices,  hour  by  hour,  and  day  by 
day,  through  weary  months  or  years,  until  a 
nation,  invincible  against  the  world  in  arms, 
seemed  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  the  rebellious 
few.  She  knew,  full  well,  that  Liberty  must 
surely  triumph,  and  that  every  waste  of  life  or 
treasure  would  only  prove  the  value  of  the  prize 
to  be  attained  at  last.  And  such  will  be  the  issue 


A WORD  TO  THE  PEOPLE. 


51 


of  the  war  we  wage.  Faint  not!  Doubt  not! 
Vast  in  expenditure,  vast  in  its  sacrifices,  vast 
in  its  desolations,  still  more  vast  and  over- 
shadowing in  its  results  to  the  human  race, 
will  be  this  present,  this  expanding  war. 

A WORD  TO  THE  PEOPLE. 

Soldiers,  -were  my  voice  to  reach  the  people,  I 
would  say,  Statesmen , you  who  love  the  Constitu- 
tion of  your  Fathers,  and  the  institutions  they 
so  dearly  purchased,  cheerfully  labor  with  your 
counsels  and  your  hands ! Partisans,  of  what- 
ever name,  however  you  differ  in  minor  points, 
gird  up  your  loins  for  the  final  issue ! Citizens 
of  the  great  Republic,  you  whose  power  is  the 
State,  and  whose  will  is  the  law  of  the  State, 
dash  away  all  doubts,  for  you  again  shall  be  citi- 
zens of  a restored  and  undivided  commonwealth. 
Church,  of  Christ,  praise  God  that  you  live  in  the 
culminating  age  of  human  progress,  when  your 
prayers  and  praises,  your  self-denials  and  your 
labors,  but  herald  forth  the  coming  day  when 
Liberty  and  Religion  shall  govern  the  earth,  and 
prophecy  shall  be  eclipsed  by  the  glories  of  glad 
fruition. 

But  that  day  has  not  dawned.  You  will  he 
called  to  meet  many  grave  responsibilities  first. 
War,  however  just  and  holy,  has  its  penalties. 
While,  therefore,  you  fight  on,  for  a generation 
if  need  be,  to  vanquish  this  unholy  rebellion,  you 


52 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


must  not  forget  nor  underestimate  its  tendencies 
and  dangers. 

Peace  is  the  true  destiny  of  the  American 
people. 

Your  institutions  are  founded  upon  Peace. 
Your  industry  and  your  learning,  your  philos- 
ophy and  your  religion,  all  expand  in  times  of 
peace,  and  dwarf  amid  the  alarms  of  war.  The 
social  life  will  palsy,  the  currents  of  sin  will 
course  more  freely,  and  the  dangers  to  the  com- 
monwealth are  then  more  serious,  because  their 
progress  is  overlooked  or  slighted  amid  the  stir- 
ring pageants  of  a great  and  overshadowing  war. 
Crime,  that  would  shock  the  most  hardened, 
stalks  boldly  forth  ! Vice,  that  would  make  of 
man  an  outcast,  becomes  too  common  for  notice. 
Excitement  breeds  upon  itself ; and  the  unwonted 
stimulus  of  the  public  pulse  draws  new  fever  from 
every  source  that  can  intoxicate  the  mind.  You 
wonder , tolerate , pardon,  because  it  is  a time  of  war. 
Yow  is  the  time  for  the  good  citizen  and  Chris- 
tian to  bestir  himself,  lest  God  in  judgment  shall 
protract  the  struggle.  Because  restraint  is  re- 
laxed and  rein  is  given  to  appetite,  never  with- 
hold your  zeal  to  conserve  the  interests  of  a 
peaceful  life.  You  cannot,  indeed,  repress  an 
excited  pulse ; you  cannot  stand  still  as  the  whirl- 
wind wraps  you  in  its  folds ; hut  you  can  do 
better : anticipate  its  coming,  that  you  may  give 
direction  to  the  current  and  provide  against  its 


THE  RESULT  CERTAIN. 


53 


ravages.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  your  hearts, 
once  so  keen  to  sympathize  with  human  sorrow, 
and  so  respectful  to  the  passing  hier,  will  grow 
callous,  and  your  ear  will  deafen  to  the  cry  of 
human  anguish.  In  the  incessant  call  upon  your 
patience  and  your  pity,  you  will  often  doubt  the 
merit  of  the  suppliant,  and  turn  away  from  the 
wail  of  the  desolate.  But  rise  to  the  merit  of 
the  pending  struggle.  Remember  that  you,  as  a 
people,  are  an  example  to  the  race.  You,  your 
sons,  your  brothers,  and  your  friends,  fight  for 
universal  Liberty.  Your  sacrifices  are  for  man, 
as  man,  no  less  than  for  those  who  have  gone 
forth  to  the  battle. 

THE  RESULT  CERTAIN. 

Sublime  and  grand  will  he  the  history  of  this 
war,  if,  as  now,  with  united  prayers  and  energy, 
the  whole  people  resolutely,  faithfully,  and  in  the 
face  of  no  matter  what  disaster,  still  fight  on. 
But,  faith  in  great  principles,  assurance  of  glad 
issues,  and  anticipations  of  ultimate  and  conclu- 
sive triumphs,  will  not  meet  the  obligations  that 
belong  to  every-clay  life.  This  war,  so  holy,  so 
inevitable,  so  indispensable,  in  the  providence  of 
God,  to  the  elimination  of  the  gold  from  the 
dross,  and  the  establishment  of  a model  civil 
State,  has  practical  duties  additional  to  those 
already  referred  to. 


54 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


YOUR  ENEMY. 

You  war  with  no  common  enemy.  They  are 
of  your  own  blood,  and  they  know  how  to  fight. 
Because  they  fight  to  destroy , and  you  fight  to 
maintain,  the  unity  of  the  States,  is  no  reason 
why  they  should  shrink  from  your  steel,  or  wilt 
as  your  flag  flashes  over  your  advancing  columns. 
They  have  passed  that  point,  and  fight  more  des- 
perately than  in  a holier  cause.  You  peril  much, 
but  they  not  only  peril  all,  hut  destroy  all  rather 
than  your  victory  should  find  anything  better 
than  their  lands  and  streams  for  your  recovery. 
They  gather  old  and  young  to  feed  the  flame  of 
battle.  They  waste  and  ruin  ! Yet  they  wither 
under  the  despotism  they  establish,  and  are  even 
now  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy,  utter  and  re- 
morseless ; while  their  rulers  still  drive  them 
down  the  current. 

This  brings  no  joy  to  us ; but  when  we  feel  our 
sinews  stiffen,  when  we  see  the  loyal  States  so 
prosperous,  when  we  realize  that  in  no  great 
measure  have  we  exercised  our  powers,  we  know 
that  a swift,  hearty,  and  united  outpouring  of  the 
infinite  resources  at  our  command,  by  land  and 
sea,  would  end  the  struggle,  and  restore  the 
nation  to  a better  and  more  enduring  phase  of 
civil  life. 


YOUR  TRIALS  AND  DANGERS. 


55 


YOUR  TRIALS  AND  DANGERS. 

"With  all  the  general  prosperity  and  thrift 
that  surrounds  and  vivifies  the  loyal  States,  you 
should  not  forget,  as  soldiers  or  citizens,  how 
many  evils  abound,  nor  how  jealously  you  should 
guard  your  character  and  life.  You  must  prove 
how  a great  Christian  people  can  war,  and  yet 
rise  above  the  contingencies  of  war.  You  must 
learn  that  you  will  endure  and  suffer,  but  that, 
therein,  may  he  found  your  grandest  victories. 

Let  me  candidly  speak  of  some  of  those  evils, 
that  we  may  meet  them  squarely  face  to  face. 

The  ’Expenditure  of  Life  not  wasted . 

And  first : there  must  be  great  flow  of  human 
life ! Youth,  who  are  the  sole  representatives 
of  names  and  households,  will  perish  with  them. 
Perish,  did  I say?  Yo,  never!  Their  blood 
shall  invigorate  the  tree  of  liberty,  and  their 
comrades  and  friends  will  call  them  blessed. 
But  there  will  be  great  flow  of  human  life.  The 
intelligent  and  gifted  will  fall,  and  their  place 
must  be  filled  by  others.  The  sick,  the  wasted, 
and  the  down-broken  will  be  so  much  prolific 
life  lost  to  the  body  politic,  and  a generation  will 
repeat  the  waste  in  unnumbered  types  and  forms. 
All  this  will  try  you  as  a people. 


56 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


Increase  of  Taxation  a Test  of  your  Patriotism. 

Again.  The  burdens  of  civil  life,  in  the  sup- 
port of  the  government  you  love,  will  press  more 
heavily  upon  those  who  survive  the  issue  of  the 
war.  Taxation  will  increase.  The  cost  of  your 
franchises  will  be  enhanced,  and  your  patriotism 
will  he  put  to  a sterling  test.  You  may  feel  rest- 
less under  new  demands  ; for  it  is  a law  of  your 
nature,  and  you  cannot  help  it.  You  will  be 
almost  tempted  to  abuse  the  Providence  which 
has  jarred  the  even  course  of  a peaceful  life,  and 
crossed  your  schemes  of  gain  or  comfort.  But 
no  change,  based  upon  discontent,  or  a faltering 
love  of  country,  under  whatever  sacrifices,  can 
improve  your  lot.  The  government  which  claims 
your  support  is  your  government,  and  its  interests 
are  yours.  Perfection  of  administration  or  policy 
belong  not  to  man.  Labor  on  steadfastly  for  the 
common  good,  and  many  years  shall  not  pass 
by  until  every  sacrifice  shall  be  a theme  of  glad 
thanksgiving.  Compare  your  civil  blessings, 
under  all  these  trials,  with  those  of  other  nations, 
and  you  will  find  no  weight  of  obligation  too 
heavy  for  endurance,  and  no  burden  so  vast  that 
you  cannot  survive  its  pressure. 

There  will  be  Suffering. 

Other  burdens,  no  less  weighty,  will  he  added 
to  those  already  referred  to.  Poverty  and  mis- 


YOUR  TRIALS  AND  DANGERS.  57 

ery  will  come  to  many  door-stones  to  plead  for 
adequate  relief.  The  willows,  whose  husbands 
have  fallen ; the  mothers,  who  have  consecrated 
their  sons  to  their  country’s  cause,  and  who,  sad 
and  comfortless,  bemoan  their  loss,  will  look  for 
some  practical  test  of  the  nation’s  estimate  of  the 
rights  their  sacrifices  secured.  It  would  be  a 
burning  shame,  while  any  live  in  luxury,  and 
have  means  to  spare,  that  such  as  these  should 
sutler,  or  have  cause  to  regret  the  sacrifice  en- 
dured. In  the  high  tide  of  an  excited  public 
pulse  sacrifice  is  light  and  easily  endured.  There 
is  a pride  in  being  recognized  before  the  world 
as  prompt  to  answer  to  the  public  call,  which  too 
often  carries  away  the  judgment  and  the  brains. 
But  when  desolation  comes  to  the  lonely  house- 
hold— when  the  staff  of  support  is  broken — when 
penury  creeps  in  at  the  windows,  and  no  com- 
forting friend  treads  upon  the  threshold,  the  lot 
is  bitter  and  the  home  wretched.  See,  you,  that 
no  such  homes  abound,  if  your  hand  can  extend 
relief.  Food  to  the  hungry,  clothing  to  the 
naked,  solace  to  the  mourning,  and  the  sweet 
balm  of  sympathy  to  the  downcast  and  wasting, 
will  turn  their  lot  into  a lot  of  blessing;  and 
their  hearts  will  rejoice  in  every  drop  of  blood 
vouchsafed  to  preserve  the  nation’s  liberties. 
Kind  words  cost  nothing ! They  are  a solace 
that  no  sorrowing  heart  rejects.  They  bless  the 
recipient.  They  soften  and  humanize  and  ele- 

3* 


58 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


vate  the  giver.  They  partake,  in  nature,  of  those 
ministering  spirits  who  soar  above  the  earth  to 
bless  the  pure  and  holy  in  their  sorrows  and 
their  cares,  and  speed  their  flight,  at  last,  to  a 
better  land,  where  care  and  sorrow  are  no  more. 

Temptations  of  the  Soldier. 

But  the  increased  weight  of  governmental 
obligation,  the  waste  of  life,  the  increase  of 
poverty  and  domestic  sorrows,  are  not  the  only 
issues  from  this  war  that  test  your  fitness  to 
transmit  the  inheritance  of  the  fathers  to  those 
who  are  to  follow  you.  Already  have  I hinted 
at  a more  melancholy  result  of  the  waste  and 
mischief  of  a protracted  war. 

War,  which  transforms  the  citizen  into  the 
soldier,  gives  new  scope  and  force  to  the  human 
passions.  He  who  was  an  orderly,  quiet  man  at 
home,  and  who  was  loved  for  his  goodness,  gen- 
tleness, and  grace,  becomes,  of  necessity,  inured 
to  deeds  of  daring  and  blood.  He  who  was 
reverent,  sincere,  and  pure,  is  brought  in  contact 
with  the  profane,  the  licentious,  and  the  vile. 
He  whose  highest  pride  was  to  deserve  the  favor 
of  his  household,  his  neighbors,  and  his  God,  is 
overwhelmed  by  the  inevitable  associations  of  the 
camp ; and,  by  the  very  force  of  continued  press- 
ure, is  tempted  to  follow  the  lead  of  those  who 
scofl*  and  deride  the  holy  and  the  pure.  He, 
whose  seat  was  never  vacant  in  the  house  of 


YOUR  TRIALS  AND  DANGERS. 


59 


prayer,  forgets  there  is  a Sabbath.  He,  whose 
party  or  social  fealty  was  but  a synonyme  with 
unconditioned  patriotism  and  truth,  too  often 
takes  up  the  law  of  license,  and  ignores  the 
rights  of  all,  if  he  but  acquire  the  power.  Ac- 
countability for  his  acts,  as  a soldier  in  the  field, 
is  recognized,  because  the  law  of  his  new  life  is 
inexorable  and  straight.  -But  accountability  for 
his  social  life  is  too  often  deferred  until  he  shall 
return  again  to  social  life.  He,  who  was  sober, 
chaste,  and  temperate,  takes  up  the  social  dram, 
becomes  the  prey  of  monsters  in  the  human 
shape,  degrades  himself,  destroys  his  better  na- 
ture, and  ruin  is  his  portion. 

Even  here,  surrounded  by  the  associations  of 
well-ordered,  social  life,  how  soon  the  enlisted 
man  is  tempted  to  put  oft*  the  manners  of  the 
citizen,  and  don  the  independence  of  the  soldier. 
They  who  have  visited  this  Capital,  at  fair,  festi- 
val, or  party  jubilee,  now  feel  free  to  engage  in 
pleasures  which  would  have  shocked  their  moral 
sense  a year,  or  even  a few  months,  ago.  This 
is  not  strange.  The  soldier  is  habitually  gener- 
ous, sharing  all  things  in  common  with  the  com- 
rades of  his  mess ; exposed  to  like  dangers,  and 
assimilated  in  daily  habit  by  the  identity  of  pur- 
pose and  pursuit,  they  are  no  less  one  in  all  that 
relieves  the  routine  of  daily  duty,  and  cheers  the 
monotony  of  a garrison  or  campaign  life. 

You  see  a citizen  staggering  on  the  street,  or 


60 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


feel  an  offensive  thrust,  or  become  the  object  of 
a sneer,  a laugh,  or  insulting  word,  and  you  are 
disgusted  or  incensed.  But,  to  the  soldier,  you 
involuntarily  extend  your  charity  and  sympathy. 
In  him,  it  is  treated  as  the  explosion  of  a little 
surplus  spirit,  which  expends  itself  in  objec- 
tionable forms,  hut  only  lasts  until  the  bugle 
calls,  or  the  drum  recalls  him  to  his  post.  The 
citizen  you  look  upon  as  ruined.  You  half  par- 
don the  soldier,  and  feel  meanly  if  you  take 
offence.  And  let  it  be  remembered,  that  the 
mean  and  sordid  do  not  go  to  war  to  risk  their 
lives  for  others,  or  others’  rights.  The  prompt- 
ings to  the  field  have  not  the  stimulus  of  fortune- 
hunting, and  few  men  enlist  to  better  their  pecu- 
niary lot.  The  impulses  that  have  filled  the 
ranks  in  the  present  war,  have,  for  the  most  part, 
been  such  as  do  honor  to  the  human  heart. 
Heart-rending  partings  have  been  fewer;  gen- 
erous, free-hearted  surrenders  of  loved  ones  to 
their  country’s  call,  have  been  more  abundant 
than  in  any  war  since  the  sacred  wars  of  Israel, 
generations  before  the  birth  of  Christ.  And  yet, 
the  elements  of  a free  and  open-handed  nature, 
no  less  prove  the  soldier’s  danger  and  the  mag- 
nitude of  responsibility  devolved  upon  every 
citizen.  A kind  word  may  subdue  the  ruffled 
temper.  A sweet  whisper  of  home  may  curb 
the  excited  passion.  A hearty  assurance  of 
earnest  wishes  for  his  highest  good  may  re- 


YOUR  TRIALS  AND  DANGERS. 


61 


establish  the  yielding  spirit,  and  restore  that 
trembling  moral  balance,  which,  once  lost,  is  too 
often  lost  for  ever. 

Yon  know,  and  I need  not  remind  you,  how 
one  short  year  ago  even  the  firm  man  of  business 
dropped  the  tear  of  unexplained  sympathy,  when 
the  first  train  of  armed  young  men  went  forth 
to  the  untried  field.  You  remember  how  they 
were  followed  with  substantial  tokens  of  your 
sympathy  and  respect ! Are  the  fountains  ex- 
hausted by  that  overflow  ? Are  the  sources  of 
your  plenty  dried  up  by  those  generous  benefac- 
tions ? Or,  rather,  in  your  safe  and  quiet  homes, 
have  you  become  indifferent  to  their  departure, 
and  so  familiarized  with  the  steady  tramp  and 
the  martial  strains  that  you  forget  their  dangers 
and  their  destiny  when  the  battalions  turn  upon 
another  street  ? There  is  homely  truth  in  this 
belief.  It  takes  a strong  nature,  thoroughly  im- 
bued with  the  grace  and  love  of  God,  or  with  no- 
ble sympathies  and  a ceaseless  flow  of  patriotism 
and  love  for  your  fellow-man,  to  maintain  this 
protracted  draft  upon  the  human  heart. 

Have  I colored  the  picture  too  highly  ? Hay, 
deepen  the  color^  intensify  the  outlines,  and  you 
shall  never  overestimate  the  sad  tendencies  of 
an  extended,  protracted . war.  It  is  easier  to 
yield  to  a current  of  human  pleasure  than  reso- 
lutely to  stem  it.  To  yield  has  the  prestige,  and 
is  grateful  to  the  natural  heart.  To  resist  requires 


62 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


philosophy,  courage,  principle.  Many  a youth 
has  fought  a gallant  fight  against  his  country’s 
foes,  who  lacked  the  courage  to  control  himself. 
Many  a youth  whose  cheek  once  mantled  at  the 
ribald  song,  and  who  staggered,  at  the  heaven- 
defying  oath,  has  learned  to  hear  with  patience 
and  without  rebuke,  if  not  to  join  the  chorus,  or 
repeat  the  oath.  If  such  prove  the  tendencies  of 
service  in  the  field,  what  shall  we  say  of  their 
reflex  influence  upon  the  State.  How  strong  is 
the  impulse  of  the  disabled,  discharged,  or  de- 
serted to  re-live,  in  social  and  civil  sphere,  the 
form  of  life  they  led  when  free  from  their  re- 
straints. How  strict  the  restraints  of  home  and 
law  must  seem  to  those  whose  interior  and 
external  life  alike  (beyond  the  range  of  military 
rule)  have  been  so  different  from  the  ethics  of  a 
well-balanced,  peaceful  State.  But  when  thou- 
sands multiply  by  tens,  and  the  million  of  men 
now  clad  in  martial  vestments  shall  return  to  the 
homestead  and  the  ballot-box,  how  supremely 
wise  and  well-ordered  must  be  the  common- 
wealth which  shall  reassimilate  their  natures  to 
its  peaceful  sphere,  and  soothe  their  redundant 
passions  with  the  flow  of  overmastering  goodness 
and  moral  force. 

OUR  NOBLE  ARMY. 

True  it  is  that  no  army  ever  stood  in  battle 
so  doubly  armed  with  a cause  so  just.  Ho 


A WORD  TO  PARTIES. 


63 


country  hitherto  sent  forth  so  many  of  her 
choicest  sons  to  her  defence.  Never  were  so 
many  of  the  good,  the  holy,  and  the  pure,  found 
battling  with  a nation’s  foes.  Never  did  so  many 
blessings  attend,  never  did  so  many  prayers  fol- 
low an  armed  force,  as  have  accompanied  and 
followed  the  soldiers  to  this  war.  Thousands 
will  return  to  enjoy  with  zest  the  luxuries  of 
peace.  The  sanctuary  will  he  thronged  by 
kneeling  forms  blessing  the  God  of  battles,  who 
hath  given  them  their  victory,  and  brought  them 
out  of  all  their  troubles.  But  thousands  more 
will  gain  no  purification  by  the  ordeal  of  arms, 
and  society  itself  must  he  their  restorer  before 
they  can  again  become  her  blessing. 

A WORD  TO  PARTIES. 

Keep,  then,  the  social  state  alive  with  your 
most  unselfish,  earnest  efforts.  Let  parties, 
■which  must  always  exist,  and  whose  very  vari- 
ance is  the  balance-vTheel  to  give  steady  motion 
to  the  civil  mechanism  that  moves  the  State, 
base  all  their  zeal  upon  the  fundamental  laws  of 
righteousness  and  truth.  Let  learned  and  un- 
learned, all  crafts  and  callings,  combine  to  con- 
serve those  sacred  laws  which,  under  God’s 
blessing,  will  make  even  of  war  a refining  fire, 
as  it  is  the  most  trying  test  of  a people’s  liberty. 

Undaunted  by  the  future,  hopeful  of  results, 
strive  together  while  your  brethren  are  in  arms 


64 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


to  deepen  respect  for  religion  and  for  law.  Let 
the  returning  thousands  be  cheered  by  the  con- 
trasts, so  that  crime  shall  shrink  before  their 
martial  footsteps,  and  under  your  goodly  offices 
they  shall  rejoice  in  the  fruit  which  the  well- 
nurtured  tree  of  liberty  so  generously  bestows 
upon  all  who  respect  her  laws. 

And  you,  who  are  so  exposed  to  temptation  of 
such  varied  forms,  how  shall  I here  warn  you  to 
guard  the  beginnings  of  the  evils  that  assail  the 
soldier’s  life  ? Believe  me,  that  vice  is  not  made 
honorable  by  its  repetition  or  the  number  of  its 
votaries.  A soldier  swearing — and,  alas,  how 
common ! — presents  the  most  fearful  specimen 
of  this  offence  against  good  taste  and  the  laws  of 
God.  He,  whose  support  alone  protects  him  in 
the  field  of  strife,  is  insulted  and  defied.  The 
heart  is  hardened,  the  manner  brutalized,  and 
the  manhood  degraded.  You  never  knew  a man 
honestly  'proud  of  his  proficiency  in  swearing. 
Never  try  anything  in  which  it  is  not  a cause  of  pride 
that  you  become  expert.  Keep  your  self-respect , and 
you  never  xvill  be  a coward.  Be  chaste  and  tem- 
perate, and  you  will  be  sound  and  courageous. 
In  personal  habits  and  every  form  of  the  interior 
life  of  man,  as  man,  adorn  your  character,  as  a 
soldier,  with  all  the  best  attributes  of  the  peaceful, 
genuine,  honored  citizen. 


GENERAL  ELEMENTS  OF  SOCIAL  EVIL.  65 


GENERAL  ELEMENTS  OF  SOCIAL  EVIL. 

A great  war  tends  to  centralization  of  power,  national 
arrogance,  and  the  absorption  of  civil  rights  in  the 
necessities  of  a military  rule. 

A war  which  directs  the  mechanical  and  in- 
dustrial arts  to  its  support,  a war  which,  by  its 
great  expansion,  appeals  directly  to  the  national 
love  of  ascendency  over  other  nations,  a Avar,  like 
the  present,  which,  Avhile  internal  in  its  cause 
and  operations,  is  nevertheless  general  in  its 
physical  effects  upon  the  industry  of  all  nations, 
is  fraught  with  substantial  dangers  to  the  com- 
monwealth itself. 

In  the  first  place,  you  become  the  object  of 
widespread  jealousy,  if  not  hate.  While  good 
men  and  lovers  of  liberty  the  world  over  rejoice 
in  all  that  develops  liberty,  it  is  far  otherwise 
with  those  powerful  dynasties  which  habitually 
suppress  the  gush  of  free  instincts,  and  use  the 
State  for  individual  aggrandizement  alone. 

Your  institutions  invite  assault.  Their  very 
existence  doubles  the  guard  of  half  the  continental 
powers.  Your  living  example  speaks  to  all 
nations  of  a future  for  themselves.  For  nearly 
one  hundred  years  the  popular  revolutions  of  the 
old  world  have  found  sympathy  in  the  United 
States,  and  have  been  vitalized  and  refreshed  by 
the  assurance  of  your  success.  Within  a single 
year  your  inventive  genius  has  wellnigh  dis- 


66 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


armed  the  naval  fleets  of  Britain  and  of  France. 
They  will  do  for  transports.  They  may  he  recon- 
structed and  adapted  to  some  of  the  purposes  of 
war.  With  most  desperate  energy  the  machine- 
shops  and  dock-yards  of  those  great  rival  States 
are  laboring,  night  and  day,  to  make  them  useful 
in  some  such  forms.  That  naval  duel  upon  the 
waters  of  Hampton  Roads,  which  sank  the  Cum- 
berland and  Congress,  had  wider  range  of  scope 
and  mischief  than  you  at  first  supposed.  The 
balls  of  the  Monitor  which  glanced  from  the  walls  of 
the  Merrimac , penetrated  the  hulk  of  every  European 
fleet.  The  sloping  sides  of  the  Merrimac,  which 
deflected  the  halls  of  the  Monitor,  at  the  same 
time  resisted  all  projectiles  that  European  skill 
had  yet  devised.  The  Merrimac,  doomed  in  the 
charge  of  traitors,  went  to  her  own  fate.  The 
Monitor  has  also  passed  away,  hut  her  many  con- 
sorts float  on,  the  fear  of  traitors  and  the  spectre 
to  disturb  the  sleep  of  despots. 

Europe  flies  to  new  expenditures  of  treasure  to 
restore  her  naval  power  and  prestige.  But  this 
involuntary  tribute  to  your  skill  is  not  a gracious 
tribute.  The  admiration  it  inspires  is  not  affec- 
tionate nor  fraternal.  It  is  the  sentiment  of  the 
fencer  or  boxer,  who  finds  his  rival  to  he  en- 
dowed with  more  cunning  skill  and  more  endur- 
ing muscle.  He  strives  the  more  to  improve 
himself  that  he  may  have  better  chance  of  future 
victory. 


GENERAL  ELEMENTS  OF  SOCIAL  EVIL.  67 

The  leading  European  nations,  constantly  on  a 
war  basis,  and  wasting  the  bulk  of  their  annual 
revenue  in  preparation  for  uncertain  war ; those 
nations,  so  faithless  of  their  own  position  that 
they  must  prop  up  the  State  by  a continual  pa- 
rade of  armaments  and  arms ; those  nations,  so 
suspicious  of  each  other  that  continued  peace  is 
never  the  assurance  of  a new-year’s  birth,  are  not, 
cannot  be,  your  sincere  and  disinterested  friends. 
While  you  only  advanced  in  the  arts  of  peace 
and  domestic  virtue  ; while  you  fed  them,  clothed 
them,  and  supplied  them  with  newly-invented 
arms  and  skilful  forms  of  mechanism,  of  which 
you  were  slow  to  profit,  they  could  easily  endure 
you.  Hot  so,  when  the}7  must  warp  all  their  best 
resources  from  other  channels  to  hold  even  pace 
with  you  in  physical  power  and  progress.  Hor 
upon  the  sea  alone  has  the  descendant  of  the 
Puritan,  the  Cavalier,  and  the  Huguenot  equalled 
the  modern  European  in  the  art  of  war.  Hearty 
two  millions  of  well-armed  men  have  stood  pan- 
oplied for  battle  upon  American  soil  within  a 
period  less  than  half  the  duration  of  your  last 
war  with  England.  And,  even  that  force,  so 
vast,  could  be  renewed,  and  still  the  nation  would 
survive.  Do  those  foreign  States  suspend  their 
blows  in  the  faint  hope  that  the  opposing  sec- 
tions will  lash  each  other  until  they  will  become 
an  easy  prey,  or  too  insignificant  and  feeble  for 
fear  or  envy  ? How  long  will  their  affected  for- 


68 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


bearance  last?  And  will  not  the  unnumbered 
taunts  they  burl,  and  the  menaces  they  periodi- 
cally repeat,  stir  up  a spirit  on  this  side  the  waters 
that  will  need  firm  restraint,  if  you  would  avoid 
the  issue  of  a world-wide  war  ? . 

True  it  is  that  a world-wide  war  may  flow  from 
the  issues  of  this.  The  principles  for  which  we 
contend  have  their  leaven  deep  down  in  the  or- 
ganism of  every  social  State,  and  ultimately  must 
triumph  in  every  State.  But  let  us  not  hasten 
the  general  conflict,  but  wisely  await  our  coming 
destiny. 

DANGER  FROM  EXCESSIVE  MILITARY  DEVELOPMENT. 

The  attainment  of  military  power,  and  the 
promise  of  military  ascendency,  develop  in  any 
people  a strong  tendency  to  use  that  power,  and 
assert  that  ascendency  over  neighboring  States, 
and  to  rush  heedlessly  into  extended  wars  for 
selfish  aggrandizement  and  glory.  Military  at- 
tainments, titles,  and  stations  become  fixed,  and 
afford  new  avenues  to  place  and  power.  Means 
are  looked  upon  as  ends,  and  this  very  military 
capacity,  which  should  operate  only  as  a subord- 
inate instrumentality  to  insure  security  in  the 
pursuits  and  habitudes  of  peace,  is  loved  for 
itself  and  the  honor  it  is  supposed  to  impart. 
Of  all  lessons  to  be  recognized  and  felt,  the  most 
difficult  is  this,  that  all  force  which  society  em- 
ploys for  its  perpetuation  or  support,  is  identical 


EXCESSIVE  MILITARY  DEVELOPMENT.  69 

and  subsidiary,  not  paramount  to,  the  civil  in- 
terests of  the  State  itself.  Many  a leader  has 
started  out,  as  did  Rienzi,  the  last  of  the  Roman 
Tribunes,  with  holy  aims  and  patriotic  zeal,  who 
could  not  lay  his  armor  down  at  the  feet  of  the 
people,  Avhen  the  legitimate  work  was  done,  but 
has  made  of  the  people’s  confidence  a throne  to 
mount  upon.  Not  so,  Washington. 

While  the  ability  of  a nation  to  defend  itself 
is  a substantial  preventive  against  a needless  war, 
its  excessive  development  of  a military  taste  is 
no  less  fraught  with  incentives  to  such  a Avar. 

As  for  the  United  States,  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that  you  have  warded  off  attack  when  you 
had  neither  armies  nor  navies  that  would  afford 
adecpiate  defence.  The  best  defensive  armor  of  a 
just  and  mighty  people  is  their  justice.  They  stand 
serene  amid  the  shock  of  arms,  envied  by  all,  re- 
spected by  all.  A on  e wish  to  add  them  to  their 
list  of  foes.  All  feel  that  the  existence  of  such  a 
State  is  large  security  to  all  against  the  assaults 
of  each.  Rations,  armed  to  the  verge  of  insol- 
vency  and  ruin,  pause  before  they  hurl  the  gaunt- 
let and  wage  battle  for  uncertain  issues.  And, 
besides  this,  so  intermingled  are  the  commercial 
relations  of  modern  nations;  so  subtle  are  the 
Ihavs  of  affinity,  language,  education,  and  re- 
ligion, that  already  the  world  seems  tacitly  con- 
formed to  the  idea  that  war  must  be  the  last 
resort.  But  for  the  fear  of  the  people,  and  the 


70 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


emancipation  of  the  people,  armies  would  dis- 
solve, and  only  a sufficient  force  would  be  main- 
tained to  insure  respect  and  give  force  to  the 
civil  arm. 

Ambitious  men  love  power  for  power’s  sake, 
as  often  as  to  secure  a higher  stand-point  for 
doing  good;  but  America  should  never  be  the 
prize  or  plaything  of  such  as  these.  Her  funda- 
mental law  is  the  law  of  peace.  Religion,  the 
true  basis  of  our  institutions  and  our  progress, 
teaches  us  her  SAveet  lessons  of  peace.  Her  con- 
quests are  the  purest  and  most  complete,  and  the 
social  fabric  that  rests  upon  her  maxims  will  be 
immovable  as  the  mountains,  and  its  glory  will 
pierce  the  heavens.  Under  peaceful  sway  the 
sanctuary  and  the  school-house,  the  work-shop 
and  the  warehouse,  the  desk  and  the  forum,  and 
every  type  of  human  advancement,  alike  develop 
their  intrinsic  capacity  to  bless  the  nation  and  to 
work  in  full  harmony  with  man’s  nature,  and 
with  a just  adaptation  to  his  better  destiny. 

To  restore  our  country  to  such  a peace,  and  in 
a new  and  more  lasting  union  to  draw  fresh  life 
from  the  institutions  of  the  Fathers,  we  wage 
this  war.  The  vastness  of  the  outlay  is  only 
equalled  by  the  priceless  good  to  be  attained. 
The  sacrifices  we  endure,  measured  in  the  flight 
of  coming  years,  will  seem  as  nothing  when  com- 
pared Avith  the  mercies  that  shall  be  in  store  for 
us,  if  we  push  forward  in  the  fear  of  God,  meet 


EXCESSIVE  MILITARY  DEVELOPMENT.  71 

Ws  requirements,  and  prove  equal  to  our  assigned 
position  among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

All  this  waste  of  life,  these  financial  burdens,  these 
bereavements,  this  social  disorder,  and  their  tenden- 
cies to  ignore  the  normal  laws  that  give  the  State 
its  being  and  its  value,  will  only  prove  the  value 
of  the  State  itself  and  purify  its  functions  for  a 
wider  range  of  efficiency  and  blessing  ! Selfish- 
ness, or  indifference,  jealousies  of  party  antago- 
nism, may  protract  the  struggle.  New  disasters 
may  try  your  faith,  and  you  may  almost  despair 
of  safe  deliverance  out  of  these  woes.  You  and 
I may  not  survive  the  struggle.  Our  fathers 
fought  seven  years  for  Liberty  and  Independ- 
ence. You  may  be  called  of  Providence  to 
serve  a double  term  of  trial.  Hecatombs  of  vic- 
tims may  be  offered  upon  the  same  consecrated 
altars,  and  every  household  may  wither  as  the 
blast  of  storm  sweeps  on ; hut  in  the  day  when 
men’s  hearts  fail  them,  and  desolation  and  bar- 
barism seem  to  dawn  upon  this  most  blessed  age 
for  man  to  live  and  labor  in,  the  remnant  shall 
he  faithful  and  they  shall  find  a sure  deliverance. 

Go  out,  then,  and  take  courage.  Bind  up  the 
wounds  of  the  bleeding;  comfort  the  fatherless 
and  the  widow;  pour  the  oil  of  gladness  upon 
the  sick  and  wasting  heart.  Deal  gently  with 
the  erring.  Cast  him  not  off*  an  outcast ! Re- 
member how  much  he  has  suffered,  how  much 
he  has  been  tempted.  Remember  the  absent 


72 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


soldier ! lie  fights  and  bleeds  for  you  ! This  is 
no  sentimental  fiction.  His  arm  has  kept  your  fire- 
sides intact  of  the  enemy.  Your  fields  have  not  been 
sicept  by  fire  or  consuming  armies.  Your  lands  are 
not  exhausted  of  their  products.  Your  rivers  are 
not  closed  to  commerce,  nor  your  shops  to  the 
busy  life  of  trade.  Your  sanctuaries  are  open. 
Your  Sabbath  is  sacred.  Your  halls  of  learning 
are  only  closed  that  their  votaries  may  give  their 
energies  to  the  great  struggle. 

Thank  God,  and  move  on ! True,  you  have  no 
great  and  boasting  allies  to  share  the  task  you 
have  commenced ; but,  by  the  memory  of  the 
Fathers,  whose  spirits  hover  in  the  air,  to  bless 
your  last  great  struggle  for  independence  and 
the  rights  of  man,  move  on ! True;  blood  flows; 
treasure  disappears ; moaning  and  wailing  abound 
in  the  land  ; but,  blood  it  was  that  redeemed  man , 
and  by  blood  shall  the  nation  be  purified  and  exalted  to 
her  rightful  place  among  the  nations. 

INDIANA. 

If  I have  said  anything  to  inspire  the  tempted 
soldier  with  new  sentiments  of  self-respect,  to 
stimulate  his  pride  of  country  and  his  courage,  in 
this  great  battle  for  freedom,  I shall  be  content. 
All  this  seems  superfluous  to  Indiana  troops. 
If  I were  disposed  to  commend  you,  I could 
say,  that  although  a stranger  here,  six  months 
ago,  I am  already  knit  to  you  by  many  grateful 


INDIANA. 


73 


ties.  Indiana  ! where  else  is  there  so  much  just 
pride  in  those  who  have  left  their  native  State  to 
battle  for  the  Commonwealth  ! Indiana  ! where 
else  have  legions  sprang  forth  so  promptly  at 
each  successive  call ! Indiana  ! where  else  has 
a name  become  a synonvme  of  victory  ! 

Is  it  where  the  mistress  of  waters  spreads  wide 
her  robes  to  greet  the  waters  of  the  gulf?  Is  it 
upon  some  narrow  island  on  the  coast,  where 
floods  and  tempests  have  wellnigh  submerged 
the  valiant  band,  or,  where,  floating  across  the 
adjoining  waters,  an  island  fortress  is  to  be 
stormed  and  captured  ? Burnside,  son  of  Indi- 
ana, pauses  amid  the  tempest,  and  smiles  amid 
the  flight  of  unnumbered  bullets  to  greet  his 
Indiana  boys,  and  bid  them  on  to  concpiest ! Is 
it  before  the  walls  of  Yorktown  or  the  heights  of 
Richmond ; at  Sharpsburg , Manassas , or  Antidam  ; 
at  Rich  Mountain , Camifax , or  Cumberland;  at 
Columbus , Donelson , or  Shiloh  ? Ah ! yes ; it  is 
there , everywhere ! East,  West,  North,  South! 
Wherever  Indiana  sends  forth  her  sons  at  all, 
she  sends  them  forth  to  tight  and  conquer.  Her 
banners  are  shattered  and  ragged  ! Her  battal- 
ions are  thinned  out  and  wasted ! Her  name, 
which  is  legion,  is  everywhere  resounded,  yet 
never  will  retreat  or  dishonor. 

But  I am  not  here,  now,  to  congratulate  Indi- 
ana. She  has  done  well,  and  deserves  more  than 
I can  render. 


4 


74 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


I talk  to  you  to-day  upon  sad  and  solemn 
themes.  Overwhelming  responsibilities  are  on 
us  as  a nation.  Unexampled  sacrifices  have 
been,  and  will  be  our  lot.  We  shall  pass  through 
narrow  straits,  where  overhanging  dangers  prom- 
ise ruin  on  either  side.  But  look — He  who  notes 
the  sparrow’s  fall ; He  who  cares  for  the  mi- 
nutest organism  that  deep  down  in  the  caverns 
of  the  earth  has  had  its  life  and  its  enjoyment; 
He  who  guides  the  path,  and  guards  the  destiny 
of  the  minutest  created  thing  that  floats  in  the 
water-drop,  or  peoples  the  air  we  breathe  as 
truly  as  He  wheels  the  universe  of  worlds  in  their 
appointed  course,  has  never  failed,  and  will  never 
fail,  to  bless  the  highest  order  of  created  things 
— Man — in  His  own  image  born,  when  he  boldly 
pursues  the  path  that  leads  to  virtue,  truth,  and 
liberty. 

I see,  coming,  foretold  by  Him  who  cannot  lie, 
a time  of  Peace;  and,  still  beyond,  a time  of  un- 
exampled peace  and  righteousness  ! The  earth,  so 
long  the  stage  where  every  unholy  passion  has 
been  expressed,  and  where  the  ravages  of  sin 
have  made  a charnel  house  of  Paradise,  and  of 
this  round  orb,  once  shaped  for  the  blissful  resi- 
dence of  an  unsinful  race,  a spot  for  angels  to 
look  upon  with  tears  of  pain  and  pity,  shall  be 
redeemed.  The  price,  most  precious,  has  been 
paid!  War  shall  put  otf  her  vestments,  and 
convert  her  means  of  torture  to  the  happy  uses 


INDIANA. 


75 


of  a perpetual  peace.  Peace  shall  multiply  her 
mercies,  until  the  earth  shall  wonder  that  her 
reign  has  not  always  been  a universal  reign. 
Joy  and  gladness  shall  fill  each  heating  heart, 
and  man  shall  appear  again,  as  in  the  Eden  of 
the  past,  the  companion  of  his  Creator  and  the 
Angeis.  There  shall  be  music  then.  Banners 
shall  float  from  every  hill-top,  and  wave  over 
the  heads  of  the  blessed ; hut  the  music  shall  be 
the  outburst  of  pure  and  happy  hearts,  and  the 
banners  that  wave  over  that  restored  and  ran- 
somed people,  shall  he  the  banners  of  an  un- 
wasting and  perpetual  love. 

One  word  more  before  I close.  I have  spoken 
of  this  war  in  its  extent , its  dangers , its  sacrifices , 
and  its  future.  I have  glanced  at  your  position 
as  a nation  among  the  nations,  and  your  illimit- 
able resources  for  good  to  the  race.  I have 
drawn  upon  that  distant  future  for  the  glorious 
issues  that  shall  flow  from  all  these  present  ills. 
I was  tempted  to  pause,  and  draw  a picture  of 
the  nation  at  the  feet  of  the  rebellious  States,  and  see 
how  that  vision  would  meet  your  favor  and  sup-port. 
What  a spectacle  that  would  be ! The  Missis- 
sippi closed  at  any  whim  of  a hostile  power ; the 
Ohio  lined  with  forts  and  alive  with  fleets ; the 
border,  a chain  of  custom-posts,  and  you  indebted 
to  & foreign  State  for  leave  to  travel  to  the  Gulf; 
an  ever-widening  breach  of  interests  and  aims ; 
doubled  armies,  and  ever-increasing  cost,  that 


76 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


you  might  not  become  the  prey  of  sudden  inroads 
or  unprovoked  assaults;  the  Gulf,  itself,  an  inland 
sea,  in  another’s  grasp,  to  cut  you  off  from  the 
Pacific  and  its  infinite  range  of  wealth  and  power ; 
the  natural  outlets  of  your  commerce  the  sport 
of  any  who  should  chance  to  take  offence  at 
your  principles  or  your  polity  ! But  no  l The 
absurdities  of  anything  less  than  a straightfor- 
ward fight  to  restore  the  Union  of  the  Fathers, 
at  any  cost,  is  never  dreamed  of,  except  in  the 
brains  of  those  who,  having  nothing  to  gain  of  a 
free  and  united  people,  would  risk  your  ruin  to 
make  some  capital  of  your  dissensions  or  your 
fall. 

Soldiers  ! Citizens  ! ! you  know  no  such  word  as 
fail!  You  know  no  such  article  as  disunion!  It 
has  no  market  here  at  any  'price  ! 

Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill  belong  to  Indi- 
ana ! Yorktown  and  Yew  Orleans  belong  to 
Indiana.  You  will  cherish  them,  and  cherish 
them  for  ever!  You  will  not  deal  tenderly  with 
the  burglar  while  he  assails  your  throat ! You 
will  not  buy  your  own  peace,  if  he  will  only  take 
your  family  and  your  all ! They,  who  have  ruth- 
lessly assailed  the  nation’s  life,  will  not  find  you 
more  facile  and  placable,  until  they  renounce 
their  arms  and  return  with  penitence  and  new 
allegiance  to  the  once  honored  union  of  their 
love. 

I close.  God  Almighty  fights  for  those  who 


INDIANA. 


77 


fight  for  Him.  If  it  be  for  His  glory,  and  the 
glory  of  the  race ; if  it  be  the  spirit  of  His  teach- 
ings and  His  law;  if  it  he  the  choice  of  angels 
and  the  spirits  of  the  blest ; if  it  be  the  prayer  of 
the  Fathers  who  bend  down  from  heaven  to  mark 
the  issue  of  this  war;  of  Washington  himself; 
that  a thorough  and  pervasive  civil  liberty,  a pure 
and  life-imparting  Christianity,  a general  and 
well-diffused  intelligence,  the  cultivation  of  the 
highest  type  of  manhood  through  the  head  and 
through  the  heart,  shall  perish,  and  the  world 
recede  for  centuries,  to  he  restored  only  through 
new  sacrifices  and  oceans  of  blood;  then,  and  not 
till  then,  will  you  fail  in  this  struggle. 

You  will  fight  on.  Be  true  to  your  flag ! You 
fight  for  liberty.  You  will  triumph. 

Then,  when  the  war  shall  he  over,  there  shall 
he  no  household  in  the  land  of  which  it  shall  he 
said,  with  the  finger  pointed,  that  its  name  was 
not  represented  in  the  great  war  for  Independ- 
ence ; and  no  cheek  shall  tingle  with  shame  when 
it  be  said  his  name  is  borne  on  no  battle  roll ; 
but  at  every  even-tide,  in  every  home  and  ham- 
let, there  shall  he  joy  and  glad  thanksgiving, 
that  to  it,  in  'part , belongs  the  Restoration  of 
American  Liberty  and  the  Deliverance  of  Man. 


KIND  WORDS  TO  COLORED  CITIZENS  UPON 
THE  RELIGIOUS,  EDUCATIONAL,  SOCIAL, 
AND  PERSONAL  DUTY  OF  THEIR  RACE. 


DELIVERED  AT  THE  DEDICATION  OF  A CHURCH 
EDIFICE  FOR  COLORED  CITIZENS,  WHILE  TEMPORA- 
RILY ON  DUTY  AT  INDIANAPOLIS,  JUNE  17,  1869. 


In  accordance  with  the  desire  of  these  colored 
citizens  who  are  erecting  a new  house  for  Divine 
worship,  and  who  believe  that  a few  words  of 
counsel  from  me  will  aid  the  enterprise  and  stimu- 
late their  aspiration  to  grow  strong,  in  all  the 
elements  which  give  value  to  personal  character, 
I have  so  far  departed  from  a settled  repugnance 
to  speak  publicly  upon  any  subject,  since  the  war, 
as  to  consent  to  this  familiar  talk  upon  themes 
that  press  immediately  upon  your  condition  and 
your  prospects  for  the  future. 

My  profession,  as  you  know,  does  not  occupy, 
nor  aspire  to  occupy,  the  field  of  party  politics 
or  general  oratory ; and  yet  no  calling  whatever, 
can  entirely  absolve  any  Christian  man  from  the 
ever  present  obligation  to  use  influence  and 

79 


80 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


strength,  at  all  proper  times,  in  giving  impulse 
ancl  sanction  to  such  moral  and  religious  agencies 

o o 

as  are  material  to  the  well-being  and  advance- 
ment of  others. 

I can  well  see  that  to  the  colored  people  of  the 
United  States  the  present  is  a transition  period 
of  great  importance.  It  is  a period  wherein  they 
have  much  to  learn  and  much  to  do.  Upon  the 
spirit,  courage,  ambition,  and  purity  of  motive 
with  which  they  labor,  will  largely  depend  the 
public  estimate  of  their  fitness  for  enlarged  fran- 
chises ; and,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  certain  that 
if  they  accept  national  blessings  with  passive  in- 
difference, they  will  go  backward,  instead  of 
forward,  in  all  essential  elements  of  civilized 
growth  and  culture. 

There  have  been  recent  statements  in  the  public 
press  that  in  some  parts  of  the  South,  where  the 
restraints  of  the  former  social  condition  have 
passed  away,  there  has  been  a partial  revival  of 
superstitions  and  usages  which  are  essentially 
grovelling,  brutish,  and  heathenish.  While  you 
cannot  hut  regret,  with  others,  any  such  tendency, 
it  is  no  less  certain  that  some  such  reaction  was 
natural,  and  that  there  is  laid  upon  you,  and  upon 
the  whole  American  people,  peculiar  obligations 
at  times  like  the  present.  You  have,  at  home,  in 
the  midst  of  an  advanced  civilization,  the  more 
cause  to  make  your  whole  life  conform  to  the 
highest  rules  of  moral  action,  in  proportion  as 


KIND  WORDS  TO  COLORED  CITIZENS.  81 

you  enjoy  privileges  and  mercies  which  those 
just,  freed  do  not  possess,  and  can  only  gradually 
attain.  You  know  that  the  arm  is  strengthened 
by  exercise,  and  is  weakened  by  disuse.  The 
blacksmith’s  muscles  are  hard  and  tough  as  his 
sinews.  The  student  and  the  idler — the  one  from 
exclusive  brain-work,  and  the  other  from  no  work 
at  all — are  useless  for  almost  all  physical  endeavor. 
So  with  many  of  your  race.  They  need  the 
exercise  of  the  best  qualities  of  manhood,  and 
they  need  advice  and  encouragement  from  others 
in  order  that  the  large  number  just  emerging 
from  the  pit  of  slavery  may  find  support  and 
countenance  from  the  conduct  and  good  behavior 
of  their  brethren  who  have  enjoyed  the  blessing 
of  freedom  for  years.  There  are  few  fields  for 
the  missionary  and  philanthropist  where  more 
good  can  be  done  than  among  the  colored  people 
of  the  South  ; and  I have  undertaken  this  address 
to-night  because  I feel  that  you  should  not  depend 
alone  upon  your  own  counsels,  but  seek  from 
those  who  have  had  more  learning  and  experi- 
ence all  possible  help  in  the  improvement  of  your 
race.  I know  that  the  clergy  of  this  city,  not  of 
your  color,  are  interested  in  your  welfare,  and 
that  you  will  gain  strength,  knowledge,  and  wis- 
dom by  occasionally  inviting  them  to  your 
pulpits,  and  by  gradual  growth  into  their  habits 
of  life  and  thought. 

I speak  plainly  and  familiarly , hoping  to  quicken 
4* 


82 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


your  desire,  your  industry,  and  your  faith,  in  the 
dawning  future. 

I shall  not  treat  of  education  (as  has  heen 
announced)  in  the  common  acceptation  of  that 
term.  The  word  is  from  the  Latin  language,  and 
one  part  means  leader , and  was  applied  to  great 
generals  or  commanders.  The  word  “ education” 
might  almost  literally  be  rendered  in  English 
thus  : “ To  lead  out  from  ignorance,  and  establish 
the  life  of  knowledge,  happiness,  and  safety.” 
'When  you  are  led  old  from  temptation,  you  are 
being  educated  for  a better  life.  As  you  are  led 
out  from  ignorance,  so  you  acquire  knowledge. 
Schools  and  books  are  not  entirely  within  brick 
walls  and  muslin  binding.  The  whole  world  is 
a school-house  ; every  fact  in  daily  life  is  designed 
as  a lesson ; and  all  Nature  is  a book  of  study  in 
the  progress  of  education. 

The  end  of  American  slavery  has  brought  upon 
your  race,  which  so  long  suffered  under  its  fearful 
oppression,  new  responsibilities  and  duties.  That 
rescue  has  been  so  recent,  that  you  hardly  realize 
the  fact  and  do  not  yet  understand  fully  how  to 
turn  to  the  best  advantage  the  freedom  attained. 

Many  here  present  can  remember  years  of 
struggle,  during  which  the  best  of  Christian 
ministers  endangered  life  by  advocating  emancipa- 
tion, and  when  the  only  channel  through  which 
benevolence  could  liberate  the  black  man  from 
slavery  was  to  secure  his  exportation  to  Africa, 


KIND  WORDS  TO  COLORED  CITIZENS.  83 

there  to  begin  life  anew.  I remember  very  well 
that  thirty  years  ago  the  Rev.  ISToah  Porter,  at 
Farmington,  Connecticut,  had  the  windows  of 
his  lecture-room  stoned,  because  of  prayer  for 
the  slaves  captured  on  the  Armistead,  who  were 
being  cared  for  on  a farm  near  the  village.  And 
in  1849,  when  Frederick  Douglass  attempted  to 
speak  at  the  Ohio  State  House,  fire  engines  were 
brought  to  the  ground,  to  drown  out  the  audi- 
ence. And  yet  times  changed  so  rapidly  that, 
in  1861,  I had  the  pleasure  of  delivering  a flag 
to  Mr.  Langston,  for  the  58th  Massachusetts 
Regiment  (perhaps  the  first  flag  so  presented), 
from  the  terrace  of  the  new  State  House,  near 
where  Mr.  Douglass  had  been  mobbed. 

The  cowardice  of  State  and  Church  had  alike 
protracted  the  torture  of  the  black  race,  multi- 
plied the  horrors  of  the  dungeon,  the  lash,  and 
the  halter,  and  trained  up  a blood-hound  class  of 
leadei’s  as  merciless  as  the  trained  dogs  of  the 
Southern  planters. 

Year  by  year  the  nation  increased  its  debt  to 
justice  and  humanity,  until  God,  in  His  mercy, 
instead  of  sending  fire  from  heaven,  as  He  did  to 
consume  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  only  sent  the 
greatest  war  of  human  history,  and  in  the  blood 
of  a million  of  men,  in  the  wasting  of  half  a na- 
tion, in  the  tears  and  groans  of  countless  widows 
and  orphans,  wiped  out  that  generation  of  slave 
owners  and  redeemed  a race  to  liberty. 


84 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


If  ever  a curse  came  home  to  plague  its  in- 
ventors, it  was  slavery.  The  inventor  of  the  guil- 
lotine is  said  to  have  had  his  own  head  cut  off  by 
his  own  ingenious  machine.  So,  blazing  cities, 
burning  mansions,  prostrate  industry,  and  deso- 
lated plantations,  felt  the  wrath  of  God  through 
the  march  of  the  once  despised  Abolitionist.  As 
if  to  make  the  justice  more  signal,  exquisite,  and 
complete,  the  “ colored  troops  fought  bravely,” 
and,  with  arms  in  their  hands,  marched  side  by 
side  with  their  co-deliverers  to  the  enfranchise- 
ment of  their  people  and  the  rescue  of  the  im- 
perilled Republic. 

The  boasted  liberty  which  had  taken  refuge 
from  the  tyranny  of  Great  Britain,  and,  embark- 
ing on  the  Mayflower,  had  landed  in  Hew  Eng- 
land, thence  to  overrun  a continent  and  become 
the  light  of  the  world,  had  fattened  itself  upon 
human  blood  and  become  the  agent  of  the  vilest 
outrages  upon  man.  It  was  righteous  and  just 
that,  in  the  sequel,  Horthern  blood  should  also 
be  spilled ; for  Horthern  timidity,  avarice,  and  for- 
getfulness of  the  God  who  had  delivered  them 
from  their  oppression  through  the  war  of  the 
Revolution,  had  hardened  their  hearts,  and  they 
refused  to  let  the  people  go  free. 

As  if  to  assimilate  to  the  example  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  who,  when  they  were  hurried  out 
of  bondage,  took  the  jewels  and  treasures  of  their 
task-masters,  so  houses  and  lands,  and  all  the 


KIND  WORDS  TO  COLORED  CITIZENS.  85 

supplies  of  the  Freedman’s  Bureau  that  were 
taken  from  the  oppressors,  were  converted  into 
blessings  to  aid  and  comfort  the  ransomed.  The 
scourge  of  human  slavery  had  so  long  sounded 
in  the  land  that  the  Hand  of  High  Heaven  turned 
it  upon  Forth  and  South  alike,  and  the  wail  over 
the  death  of  the  first-born  was  heard  in  every 
house,  as  years  before  it  appealed  in  vain  from 
the  cabin  and  the  negro  quarters.  Serfdom  had 
ceased,  though  Slavery  lingered.  England  and 
France  had  advanced  in  the  right  direction  ; but 
America  kicked  against  the  pricks,  and  would 
not  hear  the  voice  of  Providence  or  the  groan  of 
the  sufferers. 

Before  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter,  in  April,  1861, 
in  words  to  the  people  of  Ohio,  and  before  blood 
was  shed,  I was  impelled  to  declare  this  sentiment : 

“We  are  at  war.  It  is  our  existence  that  is 
at  stake.  The  shedding  of  blood  is  a mere  con- 
tingency in  the  contest,  neither  commencing  nor 
ending  the  struggle.  We  shall  not  fail,  for  the 
age,  which  is  an  age  of  struggle,  will  find  Amer- 
ica rooted  to  the  cause  of  Freedom.  We  shall 
not  abuse  our  trust.  The  exalted  privilege  of 
leading  the  nations  will  not  lapse  from  our  con- 
trol. Be  not  deceived.  The  people,  born  to 
peace,  and  dreading  the  inroad  of  red  war  more 
than  pestilence  and  famine,  are  coming  with  calm 
and  deliberate  minds  to  that  sublime  but  solemn 
conclusion  that  they  will  offer  their  lives  and  for- 


86 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


tunes,  as  a free-will  offering,  upon  the  altar  of 
country,  liberty,  and  independence.  I hear  the 
shackles  of  party  clang  as  they  are  dashed  to  the 
earth.  I see  the  bonds  part  that  bind  the  devo- 
tees of  self  and  mammon.  I see  treasure  offered 
without  stint  or  limit  to  purchase  hack  the  rights 
imperilled.  I see  the  presage  of  a tempest.  It 
will  gather  volume,  and  roll  from  the  East  and 
North  and  West,  until  you  shall  rejoice  in  every 
sacrifice  of  treasure,  and  glory  in  every  drop  of 
blood  expended  for  the  public  weal,  for  the  whole 
continent  shall  be  free,  and  the  nations  of  the 
world  shall  pay  you  homage.” 

Fort  Sumter  fell ! The  rest  you  know.  Had 
I declared  a dream  ? The  countless  thousands 
of  fresh  blossoms  that  so  lately  exhaled  their 
grateful  odors  from  tens  of  thousands  of  hon- 
ored graves  are  fresh  testimony  that  I did  not 
then,  as  one  never  can,  overestimate  the  grand- 
eur, the  scope,  the  sacrifices,  and  the  issues  of 
that  struggle. 

The  war  came,  was  prosecuted  and  ended,  and 
with  it  came  the  end  of  human  slavery.  Slowly 
hut  surely,  the  bad  blood  that  remains  is  being 
purified  by  the  application  of  beneficent  laws 
and  the  persuasion  of  the  necessary  constraint, 
so  that  no  long  period  will  elapse  before  recon- 
structed States  shall  involve  regenerated  hearts, 
and  the  whole  nation  shall  prosper  and  flower  in 
the  luxuriance  of  a better  life. 


KIND  WORDS  TO  COLORED  CITIZENS.  87 

Neither  have  I recalled  the  past  and  brought 
hack  bitter  memories,  with  the  purpose  of  stir- 
ring your  passions,  or  unworthily  triumphing 
over  misguided  countrymen,  enemies  in  arms, 
but  a°;ain  to  be  brethren  at  heart. 

The  South  is  rescued  from  her  worst  enemy. 
Capital  and  manufactures  and  emigration  are  to 
build-up  her  bulwarks  as  never  could  have  been 
realized  in  that  former  unnatural  life.  Weights 
are  cast  off,  and  she  runs  with  the  North  an  even 
race  of  peaceful  industry,  in  which  each  section 
shall  rejoice  and  glory  in  the  triumphs  of  the 
other,  and  find  in  the  other  the  complement  of 
itself,  together,  to  make  the  “ unit,”  our  common 
country. 

The  colored  people  of  the  United  States  should 
look  upon  the  past  as  the  rescued  mariner  re-lives 
the  sufferings  he  experienced  when  floating  help- 
less upon  a sea  of  unknown  peril,  that  he  may 
find  new  and  more  abundant  cause  for  gratitude 
to  the  Giver  of  all  mercy,  and  he  better  fitted 
for  the  realities  of  life. 

The  white  man  should  often  look  hack  upon 
his  career  of  power  and  its  wrongful  uses,  to 
learn  how  much  he  owes  to  a race  that  so  long 
suffered  at  his  hands. 

Hear  what  I have  now  to  say,  with  an  earnest 
purpose  to  so  live  that  you  will  convince  the 
world  that  you  are  worthy  of  freedom,  and 
worthy  of  a country  which  not  long  hence  will 


88 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


know  no  limit  to  human  privilege  hut  the  per- 
petual obligation  to  do  right  and  deserve  God’s 
blessing. 

You  have  different  capacities,  tastes,  and  em- 
ployments. You  have  many  chambers  in  your 
brain,  like  the  rooms  of  a house.  All  should  be 
occupied  by  the  right  tenants.  Hate  must  be 
expelled  and  Love  must  be  admitted.  All  • must 
work  in  harmony,  so  as  to  secure  the  best  results 
in  every  phase  of  daily  life. 

YOUR  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

This  is  fundamental  and  will  shape  all  life.  Not 
alone  in  the  free  Northern  States,  but  while 
chained  to  the  wheels  of  Southern  capital  and 
power,  it  has  been  a peculiarity  of  your  race, 
that  respect  for  some  religion  has  been  almost 
instinct  and  constant.  If,  for  want  of  other 
friends,  a sense  of  dependence  upon  the  Creator 
drove  any  to  that  love  of  religious  worship  which 
became  so  characteristic,  it  was  certainly  very 
natural;  but  behind  that  was  another  fact,  ac- 
cepted as  true  by  most  African  travellers,  and 
the  best  writers  upon  the  character  of  the  race. 
The  African,  even  when  heathen,  is  enthusiastic 
in  his  devotion  to  some  Supreme  Being  whom  he 
accepts  as  the  source  of  life  and  blessing.  His 
thoroughly  innate  capacity  for  music  finds  the 
highest  themes  for  jubilant  praise  and  melodious 
chorus,  in  worship.  However  restricted  in  senti- 


YOUR  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 


89 


ment,  or  novel  in  execution,  there  is  an  overflow 
of  zeal  ancl  genuine  gladness  which  indicates 
some  melody  of  soul.  The  Mississippi  steamer, 
the  plantation,  the  cabin,  and  the  forest  have 
resounded  with  his  songs,  when  all  that  he 
seemed  to  possess,  to  give  thanks  for,  was  mere 
life  and  the  chance  of  its  continuance.  Whether 
trudging  to  the  cotton-fields,  grinding  the  cane, 
or  driving  his  team,  the  ever-jubilant  refrain  told 
of  his  capacity  for  happiness,  and  how  keen  were 
his  susceptibilities  to  enjoy. 

Few  scenes  were  more  full  of  wild  and  thrill- 
ing interest  than  a visit  to  some  colored  church 
at  the  South  on  the  Sabbath,  when  a great  as- 
sembly, relieved  from  the  pressure  of  week-day 
duty,  made  the  very  walls  tremble  with  the 
volume  of  their  song,  and  when  a strange  delight 
and  delirium  of  gladness  in  the  worship  of  the 
Great  Master,  seemed  almost  to  separate  soul 
from  body,  and  take  the  spirit  into  the  presence 
of  the  Invisible.  This  religious  feeling  has  not 
abated  with  the  rescue  of  the  race ; but,  with  the 
increased  latitude  for  its  indulgence,  there  must 
be  a wise  direction  given  to  its  fervor,  in  order 
that  it  may  prove  a genuine  element  in  elevating 
and  purifying  life.  It  must  he  refined,  method- 
ized and  instructed,  through  intelligence  and 
wise  counsels.  Other  conditions  of  life,  pre- 
eminently that  of  systematic  labor,  must  be 
allied  with  it,  and  this  is  to  be  accomplished  only 


90 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


through  your  own  improvement  and  correspond- 
ing effort  to  improve  others. 

Your  Sabbath-schools  vie  with  any  in  their 
outward  prosperity,  and  the  generation  which  is 
now  coming  to  maturity,  untrammelled  by  the 
sneers,  the  contumely,  and  abuse  of  other  races, 
can  look  up  and  around,  and  as  you  address  the 
Creator  of  all  things  as  your  God,  so  you  can 
shout  and  sing, 

“ My  country,  'tis  of  thee, 

Sweet  land  of  Liberty, 

Of  thee  I sing.” 


Well  was  it  for  your  race  while  in  bondage, 
that,  instead  of  simply  grovelling  like  the  cowed 
brute  under  the  lash  of  oppression,  there  was 
music  in  your  nature  that  buoyed  up  your  soul 
and  gave  you  access  to  the  Throne.  To  be  an 
African  was  to  be  at  least  a natural  musician, 
and  hut  for  that  ever-present  agency,  the  power 
to  sing,  how  could  the  race  have  been  saved  from 
blindness  and  degradation  too  deep  and  utter  to 
have  been  rescued  for  generations  ? 

Wisely  do  you  cultivate  that  faculty.  It  is 
hard  to  find  a spontaneous , cheerful  singer , icho  is 
either  wholly  rogue  or  brute.  Where  song  flows  as 
the  stream,  from  a constant  fountain,  there  is 
almost  always  affection,  fraternity,  and  reverence. 
It  has  been  the  outlet  for  the  joy  of  worshippers 
through  all  ages,  and  it  is  the  glory  of  countless 


INTELLECTUAL  LIFE. 


91 


angels  and  archangels  about  the  great  White 
Throne.  It  is  the  happiest  outflowing  demon- 
stration of  purity  of  heart,  and  it  rises  like  grate- 
ful incense  to  the  Author  of  all  that  blesses  man, 
upward,  to  that  God  who  has  given  to  the  rust- 
ling leaves,  as  well  as  to  the  birds,  a share  in 
the  ceaseless  song  of  Nature,  and  whose  entire 
universe  is  full  of  melody  in  sweet  accord  with 
His  matchless  love. 

The  stoniest  heart  is  reached  by  music.  Cul- 
tivate it  for  yourselves  and  your  families,  and 
when  the  hour  shall  come  in  which  to  dedicate 
your  new  sanctuary  to  the  service  of  Almighty 
God,  let  not  praise  alone  abound,  but  make  it 
a sacred  temple,  from  which,  with  a truly  conse- 
crated life,  you  may  go  forth  into  the  world,  and 
as  men  see  your  good  works  they  shall  know  and 
testify  that  you  walk  with  God. 

Shouting  and  singing  are  not  all  of  religion,  but 
when  your  music  flows  from  the  joy  of  a peaceful 
spirit  and  a consistent,  pure,  and  useful  life,  you 
may  rejoice  that  you  can  sing,  and  may  well  sing 
as  you  rejoice. 


INTELLECTUAL  LIFE. 

Next,  and  handmaid  to  religion,  and  essential 
to  an  intelligent  dew  of  religious  obligation  and 
duty,  in  the  peculiar  position  of  your  race  is  the 
acquisition  of  knowledge.  There  are  old  and 
gray-headed  men  and  women  among  you,  and 


92 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


some  of  them  may  not  live  to  see  the  completion 
of  your  new  church  edifice.  How  painfully  have 
the  slow  years  dragged,  as  they  waited  for  the 
Year  of  Jubilee ! How  has  faith  wavered,  and 
how  has  it  seemed  as  if  the  right  hand  of  Jehovah 
was  shortened,  that  it  could  not  save,  until,  when 
deliverance  comes  as  on  the  wings  of  the  morn- 
ing, they  can  almost  say  with  Holy  Simei,  of  old, 
“ Lord,  now  lettest  thy  servant  depart  in  peace, 
for  mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation  !” 

They  were  youth  when — to  strive  to  read — was 
to  suffer.  You,  their  children  and  grandchildren, 
no  longer  a despised  race,  hut  maturing  in  the 
work  and  franchise  of  freemen,  have  great  induce- 
ment to  bring  every  child  and  youth  into  the 
speediest  and  best  cultivation  of  the  head  as  well 
as  the  heart.  Lead  out  every  good  faculty  you 
possess.  Help  educate  yourselves.  France  has 
repeatedly  given  the  honors  of  her  National 
Academy  to  the  colored  man.  The  President 
of  the  United  States  has  acted  in  the  spirit  of 
the  American  people,  by  introducing  worthy  men 
of  your  color  into  places  of  trust  and  honor. 
The  ship  yards  and  printing  offices  of  the  United 
States  no  longer  make  complexion  a test  of  fitness. 
Moral  progress  is  ever  onward  and  upward. 
There  is  no  back-track  for  a revolution  against 
iniquity.  They  who  do  not  see  the  advance  of 
Right  are  the  greatest  sufferers,  whatever  their 
profession,  trade,  or  calling.  To  be  deemed 


INTELLECTUAL  LIFE. 


93 


worthy  as  any,  you  must  deserve  as  well  as  any. 
It  matters  not  wliat  may  he  your  occupation,  so 
that  it  he  honest  and  useful ; but  it  does  concern 
you  that  you  acquire  knowledge,  that  you  read 
the  history  of  your  country,  that  you  read  of  its 
past  so  thoroughly  as  to  understand  the  demands 
of  the  future,  and  that  every  child  shall  be  early 
taught  the  principles  involved  in  a fair  common- 
school  education,  and  thus  he  able  intelligently 
and  successfully  to  keep  an  even  way  with  those 
who  for  generations  have  been  in  your  advance. 
Thus,  and  thus  only,  through  this  constant  etfort 
at  self-improvement,  will  your  field  of  influence 
enlarge,  so  that  your  people  will  command  re- 
spect, and  you  will  be  able,  in  turn,  to  assist  in 
the  development  and  improvement  of  those  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  at  the  South  who  have  not 
had  the  privileges  which  you  enjoy. 

Thus  will  you  lay  the  foundation  for  filling 
your  pulpits  with  well-read  and  successful  preach- 
ers of  the  gospel.  It  will  not  answer  that  they 
have  simply  the  fervor  of  warm  hearts.  They 
must,  with  you,  and  more  than  you,  cultivate  the 
head,  as  well  as  the  heart.  Thus  also  will  lawyers 
and  physicians  spring  from  your  midst,  who  will 
honor  noble  professions.  Thus  will  you  rise  to 
the  platform  of  true  manhood,  and  the  finger  of 
scorn  will  only  rest  upon  the  ignorant  and  un- 
worthy, whether  black  or  white. 


94 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


POLITICAL  LIFE. 

The  embers  that  now  and  then  flash  in  the 
extinguishment  of  the  rebellion  will  soon  he  as 
dead  as  the  ashes  about  them.  Sooner  or  later 
you  will  go  to  the  polls,  and  as  you  now  pay 
taxes,  so  will  you  take  part  in  selecting  the  men 
who  collect  and  disburse  those  taxes.  As  there 
were  those  who  denied  in  1860  and  in  the  spring 
of  1861  that  a war  was  coming : as  there  were 
men  who  had  no  faith  in  its  success  and  the  has- 
tening end  of  slavery,  so  there  may  possibly  be 
those  who  will  not  see  the  position  you  are  to 
occupy  as  men. 

Temporary  opposition  and  the  discussion  of  its 
prudence  or  safety  cannot  long  delay  the  consum- 
mation, if  you  are  faithful  to  manhood,  and  be 
careful  to  deserve  that  which  the  nation  tenders. 
Prepare  yourselves  for  the  coming  duty.  ISTearly 
every  institution  of  vice  in  the  land  retains  life, 
only  because  honest,  patriotic,  and  Christian  voters 
do  not  unite  for  the  best  men  and  the  best  cause. 
Your  votes  will  be  wanted  by  everybody.  You 
will  find  before  long  that  you  are  thought  a great 
deal  of,  and  will  be  surprised  how  suddenly  the 
idea  came  to  light.  Become  fully  Americanized ; 
that  is,  identify  yourselves  with  the  welfare  of 
the  entire  people.  Inspired  by  religion,  endowed 
by  education  with  the  discrimination  you  require, 
come  squarely  up  to  the  standard  of  earnest, 


YOUR  PERSONAL  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  95 

honest,  and  independent  freemen,  and  your 
country  shall  have  cause  to  be  proud  of  you,  as 
you  will  be  proud  of  your  country. 

Already  you  have  your  color  in  the  army.  No 
American  officer  need  feel  ashamed  to  own  him- 
self “ an  officer  of  a colored  regiment.”  Colored 
regiments  meet  their  duty  on  the  plains,  or  else- 
where, with  credit  to  themselves  and  the  nation. 
Clad  in  the  panoply  of  right,  fill  up  the  measure 
of  recurring  daily  duty,  so  that  when  you  vote 
for  the  first  time,  and  have  a country  in  fact,  you 
may  feel  like  shouting,  as  I trust  you  may,  when 
you  exchange  an  earthly  home  for  the  heavenly, 
“ home  at  last!” 

I am  no  politician,  and  seek  none  of  its  noto- 
riety or  honors.  I assume  a fact  which  I know 
to  be  assured;  and,  as  a fellow-man,  I give  you 
counsel  upon  principles  of  life  and  conduct, 
which,  being  those  of  Christian  manhood,  pre- 
dicated upon  the  laws  of  God,  govern  us  all,  what- 
ever our  calling  or  color ; and  I speak  under  the 
conviction,  that  had  I declined  to  meet  you  in 
the  spirit  of  your  assurance  that  my  work  would 
do  you  good,  I would  be  unworthy  my  profession 
and  my  citizenship. 

YOUR  PERSONAL  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

It  is  possible,  my  friends,  for  a freeman  to  be 
an  educated,  Christian  man,  and  still  to  lack 
many  qualities  of  person,  or  habitudes  of  life, 


96 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


that  impart  completeness  to  character,  and  dis- 
tinguish an  eminently  useful  life. 

Good  manners,  neatness,  and  the  outward 
refinement  of  the  gentleman  are  by  no  means  to 
be  despised  or  neglected.  As  a people  you  have 
some  natural  aptitudes  for  other  social  qualities 
besides  that  comprehended  in  taste  for  music. 
The  white  man  has,  in  fact,  made  money  from 
crowded  houses  for  years,  by  calling  many  most 
pathetic,  joyous,  or  spirited  airs  “ Ethiopian  Melo- 
dies” and  has  complimented  you  thereby.  If  he 
borrows  or  imitates  your  music,  see  to  it,  that  in 
your  imitations  from  him,  you  select  only  that 
which  is  refined  in  manners  and  inures  to  your 
radical  and  permanent  improvement. 

A clean,  tidy  cabin,  however  humble,  if  suited 
to  your  means,  can  be  a home  that  will  speak  to 
every  passing  stranger  of  thrift,  taste,  and  happi- 
ness. 

We  have  abundant  social  feeling,  and  no 
people  are  more  addicted  to  those  neighborly 
reunions  which  develop  the  impulse  of  mutual 
support  in  affliction  no  less  than  that  of  sympathy 
in  all  rational  and  substantial  pleasures. 

Home  is  the  first  place  to  make  happy.  Let  the 
gambling  den,  and  all  indulgence  that  wastes 
time,  energy,  or  money,  without  imparting  sup- 
port or  happiness  to  your  family,  or  benefit  to 
your  head  or  heart,  be  shunned  as  you  would 
shun  a viper.  Slavery  of  the  body  and  soul  to 


YOUR  PERSONAL  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  97 

vicious  indulgence  is  worse  than  the  slavery  from 
which  your  race  has  been  redeemed  by  blood. 
It  is  the  immediate  curse  of  this  nation,  and  a 
heavier  burden  to  hear  than  the  national  debt, 
that  physical  indulgence  and  extravagance  gene- 
rally are  dulling  moral  perception,  and  running 
the  people  after  that  which  satisfieth  not. 

But,  my  friends,  the  best  personal  and  social 
life  involves  labor.  Work  is  the  law  of  our  being. 
All  work  will  not  be  alike  in  worldly  dignity  or 
income.  Life,  in  every  sphere,  has  its  methods 
and  values ; but  the  obligation  of  labor  is  ever 
present.  Nature  gives  her  examples.  From  the 
bursting  seed,  ambitious  to  come  out  to  the  air 
and  breathe  life  with  us,  to  the  forest  tree  which 
by  slow  struggle  has  attained  a power  to  resist 
the  tornado  and  put  to  fault  all  human  resistance, 
there  is  still  found  this  law  of  patient,  earnest 
work.  If  you  look  for  a man  whom  you  would 
trust,  it  is  not  the  comer-loafer  ; but  it  is  that  man 
who,  day  by  day,  has  something  honest  to  do, 
and  does  it  perseveringly,  and,  therefore,  does  it 
well.  Women  work;  and  in  the  sphere  of  home 
they  toil  with  a faithfulness  and  devotion  that 
does  not  alone  impart  to  the  life  of  man  its  solace 
and  consolation ; but  when  the  care  and  culture 
of  children  have  had  their  due  attention,  woman, 
by  her  intuitive  perception,  comes  in  until  her 
counsels  to  strengthen  and  fortify  man  for  duty, 
just  as  her  gentleness,  trust,  and  love  make  of 


98 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


home  a heaven  in  contrast  with  the  turmoil  of 
out-door  life. 

Life,  as  a rule , is  all  work.  Pleasure  is  hut  a 
style  of  rest  to  body  or  brain,  and  is  the  balm 
which  soothes  the  strain  of  labor,  and  not  only 
refreshes  the  worker,  but  gives  new  zest  to  the 
work  itself.  Therefore,  man  and  woman,  rejoice 
in  your  ability  to  work.  The  drone  of  a hive 
must  die.  So  the  idle  man  or  woman  starves, 
and  no  willing  companion  is  found  to  give  re- 
freshment earned  by  the  toil  of  others.  The  old 
proverb,  that  “ man  is  the  architect  of  his  own 
fortunes, ” is  a good  one.  Buildings  do  not 
grow,  as  does  the  mushroom,  in  the  night,  to  be 
given  to  man  in  the  morning,  without  labor. 
Even  the  mushroom  worked,  though  man  did  not 
help  it  grow,  and  though  he  slept  while  it  labored. 
The  problem  is  simple,  and  the  humblest  have 
their  appropriate  field  of  labor.  The  whole  law 
of  human  progress  is  embodied  in  the  question 
of  personal  respectability  and  individual  duty. 

A symmetrical  life  is  not  one  which  has  plac- 
idly and  evenly  developed,  undisturbed  by,  or  in- 
different to,  its  surroundings,  but  one  that  has 
surmounted  obstacles,  and  has  realized  complete- 
ness through  struggle  and  victory. 

I have  seen  plaster  casts  that  at  first  seemed 
true  to  the  original  marble  statue  which  they 
were  designed  to  imitate.  How  differently  were 
they  fashioned ! The  copy  could  have  been  made 


YOUR  PERSONAL  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  99 

by  any  common  worker,  without  the  expenditure 
of  much  brains  or  genius.  The  original  has  been 
cut  from  the  stone  itself,  by  countless  thousands 
of  strokes,  and  when  the  earnest  worker  under- 
went wellnigh  infinite  anxiety  lest  in  delicacy  of 
touch,  perfection  of  outline,  or  development  of 
expression,  contour  or  feature,  he  should  so  fail, 
that  the  failure  would  be  signal  and  complete. 

Thus,  a well-developed,  perfect  life,  has  felt  the 
chisel  and  hammer,  and  has  attained  complete- 
ness, not  by  the  passive  acceptance  of  a compress 
into  some  established  mould,  which  was  only 
mechanical  and  without  the  ethereal  spirit  to 
give  to  the  result  the  highest  success,  but  has 
been  the  sequel  to  struggles  and  blows. 

In  a small  attic  room,  under  a sky-light  win- 
dow, surrounded  by  all  the  circumstances  that 
indicated  indigence,  isolation,  and  struggle,  there 
was  heard  the  click  of  the  hammer  upon  a fine 
chisel,  as  it  took  from  the  marble  block  such  del- 
icate fragments  that  they  fell  as  dust  before  the 
worker.  The  eye  and  face  of  the  sculptor  were 
almost  those  of  an  insane  man.  The  suspended 
breath  was  followed  by  sighs  of  relief,  only  as 
now  and  then  some  partial  success  seemed  to 
bring  a single  feature  into  harmony  with  the 
ideal  of  the  brain. 

Hours  passed,  and  the  man  worked  on.  In 
the  next  garret  a cobbler  pegged  away  at  his 
honest  work,  wondering  how  a man  could  thus 


100 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


be  bothered,  day  by  day,  and  week  upon  week, 
simply  to  cut  a stone  to  shape.  The  sculptor  died, 
and  few  followed  him  to  his  humble  resting- 
place.  His  statue,  the  achievement  of  a life  of 
struggle,  lived  on,  and  gave  to  his  memory  the 
savor  of  an  honored  name,  and  it  became  the 
model  for  copyists  and  worshipping  admirers  so 
long  as  time  shall  render  tribute  to  art.  Such  is 
the  memory  of  a faithful  life,  and  in  that  devo- 
tion to  work  is  epitomized  the  law  for  your  strug- 
gle and  mine.  As  the  river,  that  bears  great 
ships,  and  is  tributary  to  the  commerce  of  the 
world,  is  the  aggregate  of  unnumbered  minor 
streams,  so  its  history  is  peculiar.  It  was  not 
always  the  perfect,  majestic  moving  agent  of 
commerce.  Some  of  its  feeding  tributaries 
gained  birth  in  little  springs,  whose  fountains 
had  barely  life  enough  to  overflow  their  basins, 
or  trickle  from  the  mountain  side,  to  strengthen, 
drop  by  drop,  the  nearest  little  brook.  Sands 
absorbed  and  suns  dried  out  much  of  their  first 
expenditure  of  moisture.  Summer  showers,  or 
the  early  meltings  of  the  winter  snow,  rendered 
timely  contributions,  so  that  at  last,  all  combined 
with  other  streams,  alike  of  humble  birth,  to 
make  that  river.  Work,  progress,  and  the  com- 
bination of  all  small  agencies  toward  a common 
end,  secured  the  result. 

Thus  began  the  struggle  to  achieve  freedom 
for  your  race,  and  that  noble  man,  Chief  Justice 


YOUR  PERSONAL  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  101 

Chase,  who  adorns  the  seat  of  Chief  Justice 
Marshall,  attained  his  place  by  earnest  work, 
and,  above  all,  that  earnest  work  that  endures 
forever — consistent,  constant  work  for  Liberty 
and  Right. 

Our  individual  life,  from  its  beginning,  has 
been  a struggle.  We  came  into  the  world  cry- 
ing, wailing  infants,  as  if  conscious  of  life’s  trials 
yet  to  come.  The  first  struggle  for  a pair  of 
boots,  for  marbles,  tops,  or  other  hoy-time  toys 
or  amusements,  was  representative  of  the  fact 
that  all  acquirement  was  to  be  gained  through 
desire,  labor,  and  struggle. 

The  ambition  and  competition,  the  quarrels 
and  jealousies  of  boyhood,  youth,  and  manhood, 
whether  in  study,  amusement,  or  work , have  all 
had  their  natural  place  in  this  sphere  of  struggle. 
There  have  been  historic  periods,  characters,  and 
emergencies,  when  the  distinctness,  boldness,  and 
results  of  struggle  have  given  names  to  dynasties, 
characters,  or  issues,  which  for  a time  have  re- 
tained their  prestige  as  memorable  examples  for 
the  information,  warning,  or  encouragement  of 
other  generations. 

But,  as  a general  law,  as  with  the  river,  so  it 
is  with  States  and  races.  The  general  result  is 
regarded  by  the  world  without  regard  to  the  in- 
dividual elements  that  secured  the  result,  until 
Time’s  Avenger,  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth,  shall 
declare,  before  the  assembled  universe,  the  exact 


102 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


measure  of  honor  due  even  to  the  humblest  of  all 
Ilis  creatures.  Individuals  are  smothered  in  the 
rubbish  of  the  past,  but  the  Omniscient  Father 
has  in  keeping  the  record  of  every  thought  or 
deed  that  has  advanced  His  glory. 

If  the  islands  of  the  Pacific,  delivered  from 
the  bowels  of  the  earth  by  mighty  upheavals  of 
the  volcano  or  earthquake,  have  been  fertilized 
and  planted  through  the  visits  of  the  birds  of  the 
air,  and  from  seeds  borne  across  the  ocean  by  the 
winds  of  heaven,  how  much  more  certainly  are 
the  small  matters  of  daily  duty  to  be  traced  for- 
ward and  shaped  by  well-timed  estimate  of  their 
value,  so  that  they  may  intelligently  work  to 
the  perfection  of  character  and  the  blessing  of 
life. 

One  thought  more  just  here. 

The  great  victories  of  the  battle-field  have 
almost  always  turned  upon  something  so  slight 
that  any  other  contingency  would  have  lost  the 
issue.  How  did  the  spade  and  pick-axe  of  plain, 
honest  farmers , ninety-three  years  ago , this  very  day, 
give  to  Bunker  Hill  its  glory  ? How  uncertain  were 
the  waiting  hours  that,  with  Blucher’s  arrival, 
gave  to  England  her  Waterloo ! How,  above 
all  strange,  was  that  madness  of  passion  which 
evoked  the  American  rebellion,  and  out  of  its 
suppression  perfected  American  liberty,  and 
gave  to  the  world,  at  last,  the  example  of  one 
free  republic.  That  vast  expenditure  of  blood 


YOUR  PERSONAL  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  103 

and  treasure  was  made  up  of  individual  struggle, 
most  of  it  unheralded  and  unhonored  by  man; 
hut  in  and  through  that  struggle,  there  sprang 
forth  in  fresh  beauty  and  glory,  the  secret  of 
success  for  all  individual  or  national  endeavor, 
“ Devotion  to  Duty” 

To  your  young  men,  I say  that  you  are  all 
sculptors,  chipping  out  your  fortunes.  No  man 
of  any  spirit,  whether  black  or  white,  and  having 
any  just  idea  of  his  capacity  and  destiny,  -will 
he  passively  cast  by  others  from  any  mould,  nor 
will  he  accept,  as  satisfactory  to  himself,  any 
result  for  his  life  that  lacks  the  endurance  of  the 
real  marble. 

You  are  all,  likewise,  contributing  your  share 
to  the  momentum  and  volume  of  that  great  cur- 
rent of  life  which  represents  the  republic,  and 
which,  flowing  out  over  both  oceans,  bathes  the 
shores  and  receives  the  out-flowing  streams  from, 
other  lands  and  people.  You  fight  the  battle  of 
life  and  share  a part  in  the  great  warfare  that 
must  culminate  in  victory  for  every  faithful 
heart,  and  will  realize  its  complete  glory  in  an 
enfranchised  world. 

Take  my  well-intended  counsels  to  your  homes 
and  to  your  daily  work.  You  will  get  some  im- 
pressions from  what  I say.  You  will  have  new 
responsibilities  because  of  this  interview.  You 
cannot  walk  a rod  and  breathe  the  air  you  live 
in  without  receiving  some  impression  upon  your 


104 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


health  and  physical  being.  Not  a drink  of  water 
passes  your  lips  that  has  not  its  humble  place  in 
the  economy  of  your  active  life.  Yet  a thank- 
less soul  regards  neither  with  any  proper  regard 
for  the  Author  of  daily  mercies,  just  as  those 
who  live  on  that  belt  of  our  earth  beneath  which 
the  molten  lava  sways  and  surges,  rebuild  their 
frail  habitations  just  so  soon  as  the  foundations 
cease  to  tremble  from  the  earthquake,  or  the  lava 
from  the  volcano  has  cooled  sufficiently  for  their 
work. 

You  may  go  away  to-night  and  forget,  for  the 
present,  all  I have  said.  Some  who  have  not 
fully  understood  all  will  neglect  to  ask  of  others 
who  did.  The  time  will  come  when  you  will 
remember  every  wasted  opportunity  and  every 
slighted  counsel.  It  will  be  your  fault,  one  and 
all,  if  you  do  not  go  away  with  some  thought, 
some  new  purpose,  some  fresh  resolve  to  be  better 
and  more  useful  planted  deep  down  in  your 
breast.  You  are  responsible  for  the  improve- 
ment of  good  advice  just  as  much  as  for  the 
proper  use  of  hands  that  are  given  you  for  labor, 
and  for  obedience  to  that  conscience  which  is 
established  in  your  hearts  to  declare  the  right 
and  reject  the  wrong.  Many  of  you,  I know, 
will  treat  this  hour  as  a social  occasion,  quite 
pleasant  as  it  passes,  forgetful  that  every  hour 
has  its  lesson  and  its  duties,  and  that  there  is  no 
escape  from  responsibility  for  the  improvement 


YOUR  PERSONAL  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  105 

of  every  occasion  in  which  to  gain  fresh  incentive 
to  become  stronger,  purer,  and  better. 

Remember  that  you  are  bound  to  take  part  in 
daily  struggle  whether  you  do  or  do  not  wish  to 
do  so.  The  winds  of  heaven  are  ever  in  motion. 
When  you  think  all  is  silence,  far  above  you  there 
are  ceaseless  currents  that  affect  your  being,  and 
nothing  in  the  Universe  of  God  is  at  rest. 

When  men  do  not  praise  Him,  the  bursting 
seed,  the  lifting  grain,  the  speeding  waters,  the 
forming  crystals,  the  absorbing  leaves  which  live 
on  dew  and  air,  and  those  past  generations  of 
shells  and  vegetation,  which  have  been  so  long 
maturing  into  limestone  or  coal  for  the  use  of 
man,  are  all  lively  at  work,  and  unceasingly  join 
in  glad  tribute  to  the  Great  Creator  for  His  wis- 
dom, goodness,  power,  and  love. 

Thus  you  must  work  and  struggle,  if  you 
would  attain  any  good  thing.  To  he  sure,, it  will 
not  always  be  easy  thus  to  work.  There  is  no 
struggle  and  nothing  gained  when  there  is  no 
opposition  or  resistance.  Hence  reward  is  held 
Out  to  entice  labor  forward.  There  is  no  pursuit 
of  an  object  in  hand.  There  is  no  climbing  of  a 
mountain  after  the  summit  is  reached.  But  you 
have  not  reached  the  end  of  life’s  pursuit,  and 
every  hour  wasted  is  loss  irreparable.  There- 
fore, work  on.  Every  passion,  purpose,  or  desire 
of  man  only  works  toward  its  object  through 
struggle.  It  is  for  each  one  of  you,  for  me,  and 


106 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


for  every  human  soul  to  determine  on  what  to 
expend  effort ; and  to  each  soul  is  left  the  more 
solemn  responsibility  to  see  to  it  that  he  does  not 
spend  his  strength  for  bubbles  that  burst  in  the 
grasp. 

I have  sufficiently  occupied  your  time.  By 
forthcoming  provisions  of  the  Constitution  of  the  Re- 
public you  will  come  into  new  spheres  of  activity  and 
duty , and  corresponding  responsibilities  will  devolve 
upon  you. 

In  meeting  you  on  this  occasion,  I cheerfully 
say  that  I hail  with  gladness  the  coming  day  of 
your  matured  freedom.  I have  felt  it  to  be  my 
duty,  however  feebly,  to  attempt  to  touch,  here 
and  there,  some  chord  that  would  so  vibrate  as 
to  leave  a happy  cadence  sounding  in  your  souls. 
Have  you  ever  thought  a moment  how  far  little 
things  travel,  or  how  vast  the  range  of  mischief 
which  single  acts  embrace  ? The  disobedience 
of  our  first  parents,  the  murder  of  Abel,  the  dis- 
grace of  Ham,  have  each  and  all  swept  down  the 
stream  of  time  regardless  of  the  flight  of  ages 
and  the  death  of  generations,  and  still  these 
memorial  sins  rest  heavy  upon  all  who  are  now 
called  upon  to  profit  by  the  lessons  those  crimes 
inculcate.  Let  your  acts  and  lives  come  so  nearly 
to  the  requirements  of  duty  that,  through  the 
blood  of  the  Great  Redeemer,  you  shall  do  your 
life’s  work  acceptably,  and  he  spared  the  curse 
that  awaits  the  unprofitable  servant. 


YOUR  PERSONAL  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  107 

It  will  soon  be  no  novelty  to  have  white  men 
appointing  places  at  which  to  meet  and  address 
yon.  I am  here,  casually,  on  duty  as  a soldier, 
and,  I hope,  a soldier  of  the  Cross,  as  well  as  of 
my  country.  To  refuse  to  address  you  upon  the 
presumption  that  the  soldier  has  no  interest  in 
your  welfare  which  he  could  express,  would  have 
been  to  stultify  my  conscience,  and  refuse  utter- 
ance to  the  hopes  and  expectations  of  thirty 
years,  which  are  no  longer  matters  of  faith,  but 
of  speedy  experience,  as  Freedom  achieves  its 
crowning  triumphs  in  equal  franchise  for  all.  I 
have,  therefore,  in  the  spirit,  as  I believe,  of  the 
great  religious  interest  which  now  pervades  this 
people,  told  you  plainly  what  seems  to  me  to  be 
a noble  path  for  your  steps  to  trace. 

Though  in  a very  few  days  I shall  complete  the 
duty  which  called  me  here,  and  I shall  certainly 
never  meet  you  all  again,  it  is  my  earnest  hope 
that  He,  whose  temple  you  build,  may  meet  you 
as  you  first  assemble  within  its  walls.  Build  it 
with  open  hands  and  willing  hearts.  Giving  to 
God  will  enrich  and  not  impoverish.  When 
completed,  let  it  be  consecrated  with  the  best 
gifts  you  can  render,  the  gift  of  hearts. 

So  shall  your  life,  when  ended,  go  not  out  like 
some  fading  taper ; but,  catching  radiance  from 
the  Heavens  opened  to  receive  you,  the  spirit 
shall  quickly  pass  the  skies,  to  shine  afresh  and 
forever  in  the  transcendent  effulgence  of  the  Sun 


108 


CRISIS  THOUGHTS. 


of  Righteousness.  Your  franchise  there  will  he 
the  liberty  with  which  Christ  shall  set  His  people 
free.  Your  country  there  will  be  a Heavenly 
country.  Your  home  there  will  be  that  prepared 
for  you  from  the  foundations  of  the  world.  The 
Temple  wherein  your  offerings  of  praise  and 
thanksgiving  shall  he  rendered  there  will  he  a 
temple  not  built  with  hands,  but  that  which 
fadeth  not  away,  eternal  in  the  Heavens.  So 
may  you  struggle.  So  may  you,  so  may  we  all, 
attain  ! 


A HIGHLY  INTERESTING  WORK. 


.A.  IB  - S _A_  - HRj  _A.  - DEC  .A.. 

(LAND  OF  MASSACRE.) 

Experiences  of  an  Officer’s  Wife  on  the  Plains.  Third  Edition. 
Berised,  Enlarged,  and  Illustrated.  By  Col.  Henry  B. 
Carrington,  U.S. A.  Large  12mo.  Extra  Cloth,  & 1.50. 

Published  by  J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  & CO.,  Philadelphia. 

This  edition  of  “ Ab-sa-ra-ka,”  in  addition  to  the  narrative  of  the 
original  occupation  of  the  Big  Horn  Country,  in  1866,  contains  the 
following  matter:  I.  Revised  Maps,  giving  New  Forts,  Camps,  and 
Agencies.  II.  Outline  of  Indian  affairs,  1865-7,  with  personal  con- 
ferences held  with  “ The  Whistler,”  “ Pawnee  Killer,”  “ The  Man  that 
stands  alone  on  the  Ground,”  “ Spotted  Tail,”  and  other  chiefs.  III. 
Outline  of  negotiations  and  military  operations  from  1867  to  1878,  in 
that  region,  including  the  massacre  of  General  Custer’s  command. 
IY.  In  memoriam. 

“ The  whole  work  is  one  to  be  commended.” — Indianapolis  Neius. 

“ No  reader  who  wishes  to  he  really  informed  concerning  Indian  life,  man- 
ners, and  customs  should  fail  to  procure  this  most  interesting  volume.” — St. 
Louis  Post. 

‘'The  individual  who  wishes  to  get  down  very  near  to  the  kernel  of  the 
Indian  problem,  will  find  that  Mm.  Carrington  can  help  him  while  she  gives 
h:m  very  pleasant  entertainment.” — Philada.  Evening  Bulletin. 

“It  is  interesting  to  the  young,  and  instructive  to  all." — Indianapolis 
Journal. 


BATTLES  01  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 

By  COL  HENRY  B.  CARRINGTON,  U.S.A.,  M.A.,  LL.D, 

With  40  Maps.  Cloth,  $6.00 ; Sheep,  $7.60 ; Half  Calf  or  Morocco,  $9.00 ; 
Half  Russia  or  Full  Morocco,  $12.00)  Full  Russia,  $15,00. 

Published  by  A.  S.  Barnes  & Co.,  New  York,  Chicago,  and  New 
Orleans  ; London  Depot,  Hodder  & Stoughton,  No.  27  Paternoster 
Row;  Liverpool  Depot,  Wir.  Howelt,,  26  and  28  Church  St. 

“ To  me,  at  least,  it  will  be  an  authority.” — Ex.  Prest.  Woohey. 

“ Fills  an  important  place  in  history  not  before  occupied.” — Hon.  W.  M. 
Evarts,  N.  Y. 

“ Will  find  a place  in  all  public  and  private  libraries.” — Hon.  A.  F.  Perry,  O. 
“ The  maps  themselves  are  a history  invaluable.” — Henry  Day , Esq.,  N.  Y. 
“An  entirely  new  field  of  historical  labor.  A splendid  volume.” — Hon.  Geo. 
Bancroft. 

“ It  is  an  absolute  necessity  in  our  literature.” — Benson  J.  Lossing,  Esq. 

“ The  maps  are  just  splendid.” — Adj.  Gen.  W.  L.  Stryker,  N.  J. 

“ The  book  is  invaluable.” — W.  L.  Stine,  Esq. 

“ Will  give  to  the  author  enduring  fame.” — Hon.  B.  Gratz  Brown,  Mo. 

“ It  is  a monument  of  national  history.” — A.  Rochambeau , Paris , France. 

“ No  man  can  comprehend  the  American  Revolution  without  it.” — Chas.  E. 
Pearce , Esq.,  Mo. 

“ The  most  accurate  and  impartial  criticism  on  military  affairs  in  this  country 
which  this  century  has  produced.” — Army  and  Navy  Journal. 

“ Fills  in  a definite  form  what  has  been  a somewhat  vague  period  of  military 
history.” — Col.  llamley.  Queen's  StajT  College , Eng. 

“ The  descriptions  ol  battles  are  vivid.  The  actors  seem  to  be  alive,  and  the 
actions  real.” — Rev.  Dr.  O' Crane. 


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